To drift like a cloud
by Shibashi
Summary: Dying and coming back isn't normal, but then again, realizing that your a fictional character isn't much help either. Considering what little she knows of the place she's in, Shikamaru figures that just drifting like the clouds, and doing what she thinks she should do, would be the best idea. Not that it isn't troublesome of course. Female-Shikamaru OC insert. Rating may change.
1. Prolouge

**Ok, I'll be honest with all of you when I say this, and say that this is literally the first time for this type of story. I don't know if there are more stories where they put in a Female Shikamaru of all things, and to add that in, this is also a slight OC insert type thing as well. Now, it isn't to the point that said OC would knew everything and anything involving the Naruto world. Think more along the lines of 'Oh yeah, I know the series, but I only really watched/read it till when that blonde kid beat up that redhead with the sand' Type of thing. This means that there is a lot that the OC will not know, and there is even more that the Oc probably had forgotten.**

 **Now, with that in mind, this is also going to be a first for me in the sense of 'I'm writing a Naruto story that may be good' since I tried to write a story with an OC in it before, and to be honest, it didn't go so well, just saying. But anyway, moving on from that I would appreciate any feedback, or responses that one would be willing to give me, just please, no flames ok? It's bad enough having to muster the courage to even post this, don't make me quit on a story so soon just because of lack of motivation. I'm like a Nara that way.**

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 _I do not own anything from Naruto or anything involving the Creator of said story._

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 _Most people would say, and agree, that death is final, there is literally nothing that could bring, you or anyone else, back after you die. That was it, there was nothing else for you after that and you probably wouldn't even realize it until finally, you're no more. Death really was the final of everything, nothing could escape it no matter how much they tried. Of course, there are those lucky people who would have a chance at living for awhile longer, but those were few and in between._

 _I wouldn't call myself one of those people. When the first thing you see when you wake up being a scarred face, that had a ponytail that I called the 'Pineapple Ponytail', wouldn't you let out some sort of noise, either in fear, or discomfort? Of course, at the time i didn't realize that I was, I dunno, a baby? So the fact that there was something like that in front of me made me start crying even harder causing the man that was holding me to panic a bit, and send a look to the side, almost like he was like a scolded child._

" _Oh, give her here already Shikaku!" A voice spoke, before I ended up being lifted away from the scary man, and put right in front of a nipple._

 _Wanting to be anywhere but there, I gave a slight noise in discomfort, but baby instincts won out, and I did what babies did. I tried my best to forget what happened at that point, and any other time, that I had to breastfeed, and that was pretty much how it was going to go. But even than, I was more than a little confused, You would think that after getting hit by a car of all things, that you wouldn't be able to live through it, but here I was, sitting on the floor in the body of a baby. Needless to say, I was really confused._

 _At the moment though, I was simply looking around the room that I was in while sitting up in the cradle, a lazy look on my face from what the small mirror that I saw could show me. I had black hair, little tuff that it was, and black eyes, but other than that there wasn't really anything remarkable about me that would make any different from any other new born baby. To be honest though, I felt like I should try and start walking to get out of the cradle or whatever I was in, but I seriously lacked the motivation to even move at the moment. It was almost like laziness was becoming ingrained into my being._

 _Leaning back so that I was laying against the 'bars' of the crib, I gave a once over to the room I was in, seeing that it seemed to be more of an older Japanese style house if the rice paper doors was anything to go by. It was cozy, and warm, despite the lack of light outside indicating that it was probably winter more than it was actually dark outside. Either way though, I ended up letting out a lazy yawn, as my eyes flickered towards the door to see my mother this time around._

 _I couldn't deny that she was pretty all things considered, with brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail, and a few strands loose. Her skin was a bit on the pale side, a bit lighter than my own hair color, but at the same time, I really didn't care. This was the woman who had give birth to me in this life, and thinking about it now, I didn't really remember much of my last life other than that I was a female than as well, and that I had been hit by a car. Looking up at her with a lazy look, the woman let out a sigh as she picked me up._

" _I had hoped that with you being a girl that you wouldn't inherit the Laziness that most Nara have, but it looks like I was wrong." The woman spoke, with the only thing I actually got out of the sentence being 'Nara' but it didn't sound like my name, so I assumed that it was the family name, something that sounded familiar "Well, That can still change! Little Shikamaru will be the best female Heir the Nara has ever had hm?"_

 _There was a name. From the few anime that she had watched, at least she thought she watched, she remembered that name. Shikamaru definitely sounded familiar to her, but she couldn't put her finger on it at the moment. Deciding to ignore it for the time being, including the fact that I was just named, I let my instincts take over as I did whatever it was that a baby did when they breast fed, well besides the obvious part. Of course, the slightly aggravated sigh that came from my mother also caught my attention._

" _Of course you had to be like Shikaku and have no motivation except for eating." My mother spoke with a sigh as she shifted me a bit in her arms "If you don't turn out to be a tomboy than I'm going to eat my apron."_

 _Ignoring that for the time being, I just decided to drift off into sleep once again, even as I just let my instincts take over. I don't really know how long it took for me to actually consciously move again, but by the time that I actually did, it was to the point where I was walking around on unsteady feet. Time just seemed to fly right by as an infant, and to be honest, I don't really remember a lot of it thinking back on it. Honestly, I wouldn't change anything even If I had the chance to, though I would probably try and figure out the significance of the name that I had at the time._

 _Getting back on track though, I really was a lazy kid, my mother didn't really like it, even as an infant, and my dad, well, let's just say that he expected it by the time that I started to be able to walk. I was a smart kid, ignorance to the significance of my name aside. As soon as I could start walking, both of my parents started to have me practice with cleverly hidden games that helped with dexterity. My fingers had never been more nimble than that before, and even now, I really wasn't the best, but I was better than a certain idiot I could mention._

 _All joking aside, it was my first words that really caused my path of the lazy person to be set in stone. My father was, needless to say, really happy, considering I was carrying the families Laziness, which was hereditary to be honest. My mother on the other hand? That was the first time that I had seen her as angry as that, but it wouldn't be the last time either. To be honest, I would have prefered to not get on her nerves, but when you take after your father more than your mother, that's a lot harder than you would think._

 _I keep getting off track don't I? Well my first words, I bet you're dying to figure it out aren't you? Well I bet a lot of you people already know what I was I said anyway, but for those of you who don't I'll just outright say it. My first words were when my mother was being tedious with me while I was taking a bath. I let out what could have been a sigh from a baby before letting out "Mendosuke."_

 _My mom froze at that, before she started to yell at the top of her lungs for my did. She was apparently in a mixture of angry and happy. Happy becuase of my first words, but angry because of the fact that the first words I had said were what I had heard my father saying a lot around me when he was talking about my mother. I didn't know what it meant at the time, but needless to say my dad got a really large scolding when it came to saying that word around my mother. What made the situation worse as far as I was concerned though, was the fact that both me and my dad said that one word together at the same time, which just seemed to infuriate her even more._

 _I was 1 year old, at least that's what I thought, when I managed to say my first word, which either meant that I was just being lazy, or I was developing slower. I was thinking more along the first line, because of the fact that on my birthday I meant some other kids, one of which was babbling like crazy. I tried to inch away from the blonde girl that was talking my ear off, but I was stuck between her and this boy that was a bit on the heavy side. I didn't have a problem with him, he was nice, considering that he offered me some of the food that his parents gave him. I didn't know what it was, but it was soft, and sweet, so I had no problem eating it._

 _There were a few other kids there, including a boy with red marks on his face that seemed to be playing around with a big dog, the boy acting like a puppy himself. I decided to stay away from him because he was to much trouble. Well either way, I need to just get this out of the-_

Shikamaru Nara, the girl with a boys name, was interrupted as a ball of orange and yellow flew into her, which was followed by a bark of laughter. Staring up towards the sky even with the blonde in orange that was on top of her, she only had one word to say "What a drag..."

"AH! Sorry Shika-chan!" The person on top of her spoke with a slightly panicked tone even as he shifted, instead of getting off of her.

Giving a sigh, while still staring at the ceiling, the black haired girl didn't even move as she said "If you're sorry about this Naruto-san, then why don't you get off of me?"

Panicking a bit at this, the boy got off of the black haired girl without much fuss, letting her sit up, showing black eyes that were dull in the sense that they were bored. The Nara's eyes landed on the cause of Naruto flying towards her, being the Inuzuka whom she was just writing about in her journal. She refused to call it a Diary. That was for girly girls, like that pink haired Banshee that was currently giving googly eyes towards a certain Uchiha. That thought quickly disappeared though when the Inuzuka laughed loudly again.

"Just your luck Naruto! You landed on pretty much the only girl that wouldn't beat you up!" The Inuzuka laughed, as his ninken gave a small bark in response, getting the boy to pause "Oh yeah, Hinata wouldn't either, but she would faint..."

Putting a finger into her left ear, which had a three gold tear drop like piercings on it, the Nara spoke "Well what would you expect from Hero worship?"

"Like she doesn't treat you the same way!" The Inuzuka retorted right back, completely ignoring the fact that said girl wasn't to far away from him, and her face was turning bright red as well.

Giving a shrug in response, while also using her signature catchphrase, the Nara remembered how that particular thing started. She was a young kid, just getting over the fact that she was going to become a Shinobi no matter what her opinion of the matter was, and she had seen the Shy Hyuga getting bullied by a few classmates. Of course, Naruto, who was already her friend by this point, had saw it as well, and without even needing to talk about it the two beat off the bullies, though Shikamaru left most of them for Naruto considering she didn't want to "Do anything too troublesome." as she had put it.

Deciding to get more comfortable, the Nara got up off of the floor, and went back to her seat, with a lazy demeanor "Whatever. It's not like I'm actually looking for anything like that in the first place. If she want's to put me on a pedestal, that's her incentive."

Most people would have flinched at the lazy, and almost cold, way that the Nara spoke, but by now everyone who was from a clan had gotten used to it. Nara's tended to be the type that would push work onto other people if they could help it, and Shikamaru wasn't any different, even if she was a different gender compared to the majority of the Nara clan that was born into it. She didn't really care either way though which was exactly why she had said that. What did the opinion of someone else matter to her?

The door to the classroom door opened up not even as second after she had finished talking, her feet already up on the desk as the students teacher, Iruka, and the assistant, Mizuki, had walked into the class. Shikamaru's eyes narrowed slightly at the cold eyes that appeared from the short haired teacher when looking towards Naruto, who was sitting right next to her. Oh how she wanted to tell someone, anyone, about the blatant murderous look that the teacher was giving, but who would believe a kid? Even her dad didn't take what she said seriously at times, and that had caused a few arguments between the father and daughter.

No one in the Nara clan really had to look to far into it to see that Shikamaru, while gaining most of Shikaku's temperament, had also received Yoshino's temper.

Well there was also the fact the most commonly used quote that anyone from the other clans was in use here. If she really wanted to, than the quote "They say the only thing to fear is fear itself. That, and a motivated Nara." would apply to her as well, and she would be damned to say that she wasn't starting to get attached to the blonde idiot that was sitting next to her. Would it actually work if she started up a conversation that would make sense to her father? At the moment she was actually trying her best to not be noticed, not too bad to need to be helped, but not good enough to be noticed. Unconsciously, she started to slip into the thinking pose that she had developed a couple of months ago while playing her dad in a game of Chess.

She received a few stares, but the biggest one belonged to none other than Naruto Uzumaki, who was sending her slightly nervous glances. He knew that she hated the looks he received and when she went into that pose it usually meant that she was over thinking things, or she was planning ahead for something that would most likely get her into a lot of trouble if she was caught. Blue eye flickered back and forth from the teacher in front of the class, to his first friend. Whatever she was thinking of, it definitely wasn't good, considering she usually ended up really motivated right after using that thinking pose.

Black eyes opened with a glint that the blonde had seen before, something that caused him to shiver in the process as well. Oh yeah, she was definitely motivated now. Whatever it was that she had planned was definitely not going to end well for whoever she was thinking about in a tactical sense. The last time he had seen that glance, she had gave him a huge lecture that he had actually understood, that caused him to stop trying to get Sakura to go out with him. He was kind of stupid at that point, even if he wasn't as bad anymore, he was still kind of stupid, he would admit that much.

Deciding that it was more trouble than it was worth to try and figure out what was going on the blonde looked back towards his teacher, trying to pay attention, and understand, what his teacher was talking about. Shika did a lot when it came to helping with that, but she didn't like to help him out in the open. Not because of her parents, he had found out, but because she didn't want to be noticed as anything but average. The fact that she walked through Konoha with him without a problem showed that was what it was more than anything, though he did admit that he was slightly hurt at first, until she explained what it was.

A small smile, genuine, smile made its way onto his face as he realized that she wasn't going to abandon him no matter what happened. She was one of the few people that tried to look past just what other people said. She had no opinion of him when they had first met, and the fact of the matter was that she had thought that he was cute when they had first met. Seriously her first words to him was "You're kinda cute. I don't get why people don't like you." in an extremely lazy tone that was really blunt as well.

Unbidden his cheeks started to go a bit red at the memory, before he forced it back down so that he could forget about it. He might not like it, but he had to focus on the class in front of him if he wanted to be a great ninja! That was one of the first things that Shikamaru had pounded into his head when they had first became friends. With his focus though, he didn't notice the Nara sending him a look that had her eyes glinting with Motivation.

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 **Ok, I'll be honest and just come out and say it, this first chapter was to give you an idea of what I'm going to do when it comes to flashbacks. I like the idea of it being put into a journal, that is written in English mind you, so that she can remember all of her experiences. Shikamaru, and yes I really couldn't think up a name that would work with 'Shika' in it, and I didn't want to steal a name from, say, the dreaming of Sunshine that Silver queen as made so popular. I'm not a thief and I'm not going to start here.**

 **Thus, Shikamaru instead of whatever I could think of with a bit of motivation that would make me, not lazy. I don't really care what the name of the character is anyone, considering the fact that I literally just genderbended a main character, and put an OC in there. Of course, the Nara laziness still wins out, but there will be character traits that the original Shikamaru didn't, or wouldn't, have to begin with. Like one hell of a temper, which you'll probably see in, say, 2-3 chapters from this one. I need to set up things before i can say before anything. Either way though, I hope that this is good enough for you guys for now!**


	2. Arc 1: Plan's set into motion

**Ok, I'm really really surprised by this, and to be honest, really happy as well! I never expected to get such a huge response out of the first chapter you know?! It's awesome, and even if I only managed to get 6 reviews, this is officially the best story I've ever written, though that's not saying much considering I've only written 2 so far... Well either way, a majority of this A/N is not going to be answering reviews, oh no, I like being personal for that type of thing, but instead, a thank you to people who followed, and favorited. The review people, you know who you are ;)**

 **Thank you: 15ls, Apocalypsebutterfly, Bloody illusion, CappuccinoLover001, DarkDust27, DesertxFox, DolciFool, Itsmehamaza, LoveroftheKiller, Mirimi-chan, SlythernLibra, ThemistakenKing, basketball4444, Minouuu974, silly60, tarynfire, and xXAzureFangeXx For favoriting this story!**

 **Also, Thank you: Apocalypsebutterfly, Blood illusion, BlueFire2520, CappuccinoLover001, DarkDust27, DeserxFox, Itsmehamza, Loverofthekiller, Mirimi-chan, Ransor, Razorblade364, RedSoleil, SlytherinLibra, TheMistakenKing, WordsAreFun, beanche, jiemae, kayums, minouu974, spagtag, tarynfire, thechangeoftheseasons, and xXAzureFangXx for following this story as well!**

 **Well, that's it for the special thanks! I think it's time for the chapter aye?**

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 _ **I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters!**_

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 **Everyday life of a cloud Arc: Plan's set into motion.**

Shikamaru was looking at her journal, the first entry complete now, with the last sentence being that she just needed to get things out of her head, right after her little thought of staying. away from a young Kiba. The boy was really annoying than, and he wasn't much better now. The fact that he hit on her here and there now just made things worse as far as she was concerned. She really didn't want to hurt the idiot dog, but if she had to she would without a problem. She wasn't going to be anyone's 'Pretty little wife' as the dog had said. It wasn't really necessary, but she took a low blow on him for that one, getting her disqualified in the little sparring match that the teacher had set up for the students.

Ignoring that for the time being, Shikamaru looked towards her father, who was sitting across from her with a cup of tea, a couple of papers in his hands that he was going over. She paused for a few seconds to brace herself for this, before she spoke "The Kyuubi, it's not dead is it?"

"I was wondering when you were going to ask." Shikaku spoke after a few seconds of silence, the two ignoring what they were doing now to look towards each other "You've always been too smart for your own good, I swear you were looking at my scars more than my actual face when you were a baby."

Giving a lazy look that matched her father, Shikamaru just shrugged "I could have been for all you know, but you still didn't answer my question."

"Hm... Well, I can't exactly talk about it, considering it's a village secret, but how about you tell me what you think is going on." Shikaku spoke with a slight smirk, the type that showed that he was basically saying that he was going to say what was right and what was wrong of what she said.

Giving a slow blink towards her father, before setting her Journal down, the 9 year old spoke "I think that Naruto has the Kyuubi inside of him, somehow, i think with whatever Fuinjutsu is, and because of that, most of the village hates him for something that's inside of him."

"Hm... Well Fuinjutsu is the art of using seals to do various things, such as sealing an object into a scroll." The Nara responded after taking a small sip of his tea, speaking in a way that made it seem like he had spoken to answer her question of what Fuinjutsu was, and not confirming what she had said.

Giving a nod towards her father, Shikamaru wrote something else onto the journal, before looking back towards her dad "So... I had another thing I wanted to ask. I managed to get into the Genin section of the library, legally of course, and I noticed that the Nara, Akamichi, Yamanaka clan heirs usually get stuck on a team. I think that should change."

Shikamaru ignored the narrow eyed look that she got from her dad about sneaking into the Genin section of the library. You needed to at the very least be a genin to get into there as the name suggested, and she had, deliberately, snuck into there. No nara would try and learn something that was above their station, unless they were-

Shikaku's eyes narrowed as he realized what was going on. His daughter was motivated about something, something that had made her break a few rules to learn what she needed to know. Thinking over it, his eyes widened slightly in realization as he finally understood what was going on. She was really pushing it wasn't she? But than again, she was just as much Yoshino's daughter as she was his. When she got motivated to do something, than she was going to try everything she could to try and get what she hoped she could out of the situation. In this situation it seemed that he really didn't have much of a choice.

Giving a sigh, the older man looked towards his daughter one more time, before he said "I'll bring it up to the Hokage. But the question is, how motivated are you to do this? You do realize what makes up the other teams as well right?"

"What a drag." Was the simple response from Shikamaru as she looked towards her father with the same lazy tone, motivation burning in her eyes at the same time though "Why would I bring this up if I wasn't motivated enough to try and do what I'm aiming for? You know just as well as I do what the motto of our clan is."

Giving a nod towards his daughter, Shikaku pulled the Shogi board they had under the coffee table out, as he said "'Motivation is only needed when there is something on the line'. Obviously there's something on the line for you to try and do this. Why don't you and me play a game of Shogi to get our minds off of it?"

Shikamaru, in turn, gave a bitter look towards her father as she understood what was going on now. He wanted her to prove that she was motivated enough for this. She wasn't going to be able to win no matter what she did, her intelligence, while well above average for her age, wasn't nearly as great as her father's was, at least not yet. That didn't mean she couldn't be bitter about playing a strategy game with him.

Letting out a yawn, Shikaku walked up towards the Hokage tower for the meeting that between the shinobi council. The Uchiha massacre was the last time that he had needed to do this with feeling a sense of pressure, but now he had the same problem. Shikamaru was motivated enough to try and change something that had been set into stone since before Konoha had been made. It was going to be tough, but it was something that needed to happen. He could see it now that his daughter had pointed it out, and how sad was that, needing a child's help to see something that needed to change so that Konoha could be more effective with some of the teams that they had.

Moving his stiff neck to try and get the crick out of it, Shikaku's bleary eyes scanned over Tsume Inuzuka talking with Hiashi Hyuga about something, probably something to do with how their children would end up on the same team in the future. He wasn't sure how Tsume would react to his proposition, but he knew that Hiashi would probably turn it down right away. Him being Jounin commander or not, the clan head had about as much power as he himself had when it came to propositions. This was definitely going to be a big headache for him he just knew it, but the fact was that he was going to do this no matter what.

Repressing yet another yawn, Shikaku let a lazy smirk make its way onto his face as he saw his two teammates walking towards him. Raising a hand, Shikaku said "Morning Inoichi, Choza."

"Morning to you as well Shikaku, you look like you got hit by a Doton jutsu." Choza spoke with a hearty laugh on his plump face.

Rubbing at the back of his head, and repressing yet another yawn, the jounin commander shrugged "To be honest you could blame my little troublemaker for that one. She talked my ear off despite the fact that she had to go to the academy this morning."

And wasn't that the truth? Not to long after the Shogi game ended, Shika had given him a huge lecture on what she thought was the reason that they needed to mix things up, and to be honest, he couldn't deny it, even if the teams usually consisted of clan members that tended to, more often than not, end up on a team together. The Uchiha, for example, tended to be put onto teams of three of their own because of the fact that no one else knew about the Sharingan but them, and fighting was the only way to unlock the thing.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts as Inoichi spoke. Shikaku rolled his eyes "You're little troublemaker couldn't be nearly as bad as Ino."

"I doubt that, considering the fact that Shikamaru is actually motivated about something for once." Shikaku spoke, his voice obviously being louder than what he normally spoke at considering the fact that most of the conversation in the room had silenced, causing him to sigh "What a drag..."

Tsume gave a barking laugh at that from her seat next to the Hiashi, and Shibi Aburame "So the little brat is finally motivated about something huh? This outta be good than once whatever happens, happens!"

"You say that now, but I doubt that it is something that we will all like." Shibi spoke in his normal analytical tone even as he pushed his glasses up "Am I correct to assume this Shikaku-san?"

Giving a shake of his head, the Nara leaned back in his chair that he, and his two teammates took "Well you're not wrong. Still though, this is something better discussed when the Hokage gets ere."

Shibi simply gave a nod as everyone else went back to their own conversations. Really, with how things were going, just from the Aburame head talking, he knew this was going to be really really troublesome, but he knew that if he didn't do it, than his daughter would bring it up to the Hokage herself, and he knew that she wouldn't be taken seriously. There was also the fact that she could get into trouble with the fact that she had snuck into the Genin section of the library. Seriously, she just dug herself into a hole, one she herself had admitted to digging, but she didn't regret it as far as he was able to see. Really, he just wanted to relax at this point, but he knew that wasn't going to happen, especially when the Hokage walked into the room.

Staying silent for the time being as the Hokage discussed the problems that the clan's had, and things they needed, Shikaku bidded his time, and also prepared himself for most of the room to lash out at him in some way. He really didn't know about a few of them, but the more strict clan's such as the Aburame, and the Hyuga, would definitely not like this. Stifling the urge to let out his daughter's signature catchphrase at the fact that he was going to have to deal with this soon.

"Shikaku." The voice of Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke causing the Jounin commander to look over towards the older man "Tsume informed me that you had something else you wished to discuss?"

Giving a sigh, Shikaku sat up in his chair, gaining a serious look that would often be associated with him being in the middle of explaining a strategy "What a drag... Well Hokage-sama, I was thinking over a few things, and even my daughter brought some things to my attention about the way that teams are set up."

"Everyone here knows that the teams are set up by their overall ranking in class." The only Hyuga in the room spoke with his normal stuck up tone of voice, something that caused Shikaku to let out a sigh.

Giving the man a flat look, Shikaku spoke "You and I both know that's bullshit. Every year we always end up with a team that consists of an Inuzuka, a main branch Hyuga, and Aburame, if they are in the same year. Most of the other teams are decided that way, but that usually only happens if there aren't clan heirs or Heiresses."

Hisashi didn't seem happy about that being shoved into his face, even as Tsume and Shibi stared at Shikaku with questioning looks "What are you going on about Shikaku?"

"I would have to agree with Inuzuka-san with this Nara-san. I do not understand what this has to do with anything that we have discussed here today." Shibi responded right after Tsume, the rest of the council, minus Hiashi, looking just as confused.

Putting a hand onto his face while mumbling about this being 'way too troublesome' before he looked back up looking the three clan heads in the eye "Look, I trust the system that we made for our graduating genin just as much as anyone else in this room, but times are changing, what are we going to do when people finally understand what's going on with our teams and they send out people to counter our teams?"

"What are you-" Inoichi started to ask, before a hand touched his shoulder, causing him to stop as he looked towards the Hokage.

Hiruzen looked towards Shikaku with an unreadable look, as he asked "Are you saying that the current system is unacceptable?"

"With all due respect Hokage-sama, yes it really is." Shikaku spoke in a blunt tone as he looked towards the man that he was pretty much directly under "The deadlast in the academy being put with the top Kunoichi and rookie of the year, as far as i'm concerned, is fine considering it does just like you said before, balances the team. What I have a problem with however, is the fact that we are becoming a bit predictable with our team assignments for the rest of the students of the years. With the current assessment, more and more Civilian's are being turned away because of the way the assignments put them together in a way that they wouldn't last long outside of Konoha. To put it glibly, the way it is now is costing us more than we can afford if we keep up with this way."

The rest of the council stared at Shikaku with wide eyes, even Hiashi for that matter, as he started to talk about the faults of the current system. The way that Shikaku was making it seem was that the current system was making the teams unbalanced and even killing some of their young Shinobi. To be honest though, that was exactly what he was talking about as well. After the talk that his daughter and he had, he went into the mission records to see if the statistics were correct, and for anyone under the rank of Joinin, that was true. The Chunin that went onto some missions were promoted because of their strategy, and that was it, and when they were put onto teams like that, they ended up killed by woefully superior enemies.

The biggest thing though, was that not only was that happening now, but it had been happening since before Hiruzen had become Hokage. The fact that it had been happening for that long without anything or anyone fixing it, was aggravating to say the least. The hurt to his pride at the fact that his nine year old daughter had lead him to this, was overshadowed by the anger of the fact that men and women died for absolutely no reason. A slightly different team assignment, or a bit more training, would have saved hundreds of lives in the past 60-70 years, and would have made Konoha stronger. This was really troublesome, but he didn't regret the fact that his daughter had helped him figure this out, of course that's also ignoring the fact that didn't get any sleep because of it..

Ignoring that for the time being, Shikaku looked towards Hiruzen after he gave his findings with the mission records. The whole council was deathly silent, as they all took in what the Jounin commander had found out though just a little bit of research. Tsume was angry, needless to say, about the fact that many of her clan could have still been alive and happy, if they had received more training from Joinin that could actually help them better than the one they had got received. She wasn't the only one, with an angry buzzing coming from Shibi indicating his mood, even as Hiashi glared at the table realizing that this also worked with his clan as well. Of course, Choza and Inoichi also agreed with this as well, knowing their friend well enough to know that he wouldn't present anything that he didn't believe in.

Hiruzen let out a tired sigh as he put a hand to his face "I understand Shikaku. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. The fact that the teams that had the dead last and the rookie of the year in them had the lowest casualty count, however, says a lot. With what you've told me, I think it's about time that we make teams based solely on the ranking, and not due to alliances between clans. I am sorry to say that you're team will be the last Ino-shika-cho, Shikaku, Inoichi, Choza."

"That's fine to be honest Hokage-sama." Choza spoke with a soft frown on his face "I just wish that we would have been able to find this sooner. Maybe than we could have saved more of each of our clan's, and more Civilian born Shinobi as well."

Inoichi gave a hum of acknowledgement at that as well, as he looked towards Shikaku "I have to agree with Choza on that manner, but how did you even think to look for this anyway?"

"Lets just say that a certain troublemaker pushed me in the right direction." Shikaku spoke, as he looked out towards the Window in the meeting room towards the Academy.

Shikamaru gave a glare towards the girl that was in front of her at the moment. The Nara had made it to school later than she normally did, which was why Naruto had already been in class waiting for her instead of waiting for her outside of the school, and of course, that had caused him a bit of trouble with a certain Uchiha due to the fact that they disliked each other a lot. Naruto was still the dead last of the school's ranking, and that wasn't due to a lack of trying, but the fact of the matter was that when Shika arrived, she was greeted to the sight of Sakura Haruno punching Naruto in the head while she screamed at the top of her lungs to 'leave Sasuke-kun' alone.

Naruto, being the type of person who was horrible with lying, and told Shikamaru when she asked what he did, that he was just glaring at the 'Teme' as he called Sasuke. Sakura took another swing at Naruto for calling Sasuke that, before Shikamaru caught the fist with a tired sigh, but a glare in her black eyes. Everyone looked on after that with wide eyed looks at the fact that the laziest person in school, had stopped Sakura like it was nothing, especially considering she was well known for being stronger than she looked.

"Alright, you're gonna need to stop trying to destroy what little brains Naruto has left." The Nara spoke in a lazy drawl even as she ignored the yell of indignation from said blonde "He's not the smartest of people, even he admits that, but I don't think you really had any reason to punch him."

Sakura let out a growl as she swung her other fist, having it connect with the Nara's head, sending her backwards right as Iruka walked in "Shut the hell up you tomboy! What do you know about the idiot?!"

"Quite a lot actually, since, you know, he's my best friend?" The black haired girl spoke as she rubbed her jaw a bit due to the pain of being punched in the face though her eyes quickly landed on the stock still form of Iruka "Ah! Iruka sensei, guess this is getting kinda troublesome... Well, since you're here, do you think I could spar Sakura here? I mean, she did just hit me in the face and all."

Snapping out of his trance, the teacher stared at the lazy girl for a second, before he nodded "If that's how you want to sort things out Shikamaru-san, than by all means."

"Oh, and let everyone in class watch would ya?" Shikamaru spoke as she stood up, ignoring the jeers that she was getting from the rest of the female population that liked the Uchiha "I'm probably going to be a bit more active here soon all things considered, and I want to show that."

The teacher blinked a bit in surprise, but he nodded anyway showing that he understood what she was asking, no matter how much it surprised him that she was actually going to do this. Telling the rest of the class where they were going, Shikamaru ignored Sakura, who had a confident look on her face as she passed by. The black haired girl simply put her hands into her pockets, as she walked through the door first, Naruto not to far behind her.

Catching up to the Nara, the blonde gave a wide eyed look towards his best friend "What are you doing Shika-chan?! I thought you wanted to stay unimportant?"

"I found out something that gave me some motivation." The girl spoke while looking towards Naruto out of the corner of her eye "I don't know if you know how teams are made up, but if it's the way that i'm thinking then so long as you're dead last I won't be on your team, something that I actually want. I can't prove it, but I think someone is sabotaging you as well so you'll probably be dead last even if you're the best kid in the class."

Naruto looked at the Nara with wide eyes, before he asked "Does that mean that the top two in the year are on the same team as the bottom?"

"See? I told you you're not as stupid as you think you are." Shikamaru spoke with a smirk on her face as she ruffled the shorter boy's hair a bit, getting a squeak from him out of embarrassment "You really need to use your head more often, seriously."

Crossing his arms while turning away from the girl, a giggle caught both of their attention as Hinata caught up to them, poking her fingers together as a nervous habit "You two are almost like siblings you know that...?"

"Hey, you didn't stutter." Shika spoke with a happy expression as she did the same thing to Hinata as well, since she was taller than both of them at the moment "But Nah, I don't think I could be this idiot's brother. I like him, but I don't think It'll ever be in that sense."

The Nara had no delusions that things could go in a completely different direction than what she could think up. She knew for a fact that humans were the one thing you could never plan around unless you were in a battlefield, and even than, you can't predict everything that's going to happen. In this case, it was more along the lines of Shikamaru not knowing where things would end up, like if she would end up in love with Naruto, or if Hinata would all things considered. God forbid if the shy Hyuga ended up finding that she was not only in love with the blonde, but her as well.

Shikamaru ignored that with as much force as she possibly could, as she heard Hinata, let out a small giggle "I've been t-trying to get better with t-talking without stuttering..."

Giving the blue haired girl a smile and a nod, Shikamaru's expression turned more serious as she looked towards the circle where the Sakura was waiting for her. Rolling her eyes at the fact that the pink haired girl was cracking her knuckles, Shika just walked into the ring with her hands in her pockets. She looked to the side towards Iruka seeing that he was ready, and then looked back towards the pink haired girl who had punched the Nara's friend.

"I don't even know why you agreed to this considering you just give up every time you enter the ring." Sakura let out with a taunt, trying to look intimidating, well as intimidating as a 9 year old with pink hair could.

Letting out an unrestrained yawn, the Nara simply mumbled "What a drag... Why did I agree to this again...?"

"Kick her ass Shika-chan!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs, which was followed by a quieter "You can do it!" From Hinata.

"Oh yeah, it was because of that idiot." She reminded herself as she stared Sakura down.

Well, this was either going to end in disaster, or it was going to turn out the way she wanted. Either way, things definitely were going to get troublesome for the Nara. She just hoped that her dad managed to convince the Hokage about her idea.

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 **So I need to know what you guys thought! Good? Bad? Averagely awesome, but not quite as good as the last chapter? Whatever it is that you guys think, let me know ok? I'm more than eager to hear your thoughts, and I won't care so long as it isn't flaming me considering, to be honest, I'm an ameture writer, so I'll probably make mistakes, or put something in here that will end up pissing someone off.**

 **Ok, moving on from there, however, the next chapter will be a bit longer, both lengthwise, and time needed before I am comfortable posting it on here, so be a bit patient with me. I mean, this chapter comes out to about 4000 words, give or take considering the A/N, but with that in mind, I'm happy with how things have been turning out so far, and I hope you bear with me, considering the fact that the first, lets say, five or six chapters will be a bit on the boring side, and before cannon, I kinda hope that it doesn't turn some people off of the story.**

 **Well whatever, please let me know what you think as Reviews can make or break an author's drive to continue. Ja ne!**


	3. Arc 1: Another troublesome day

**So. Here's yet another chapter for 'To drift like a cloud' and to be honest? I'm really, really happy with the results that I've gotten! At the time of this chapter being posted I currently have 18 reviews, 48 followers, 31 favorites, and 2 comminutes that this story is in, that's not even including the total of 565 views as well. I'm really really happy with everything, and I want to thank every single one of you that liked and followed this story ^_^. Every single follow, favorite, and review gives me more and more reason to continue to write this story, and that's why I try to make sure that every review that comes my way is answered personally via a Private message. For those of you who are guests, however, I can answer everything here, so long as it's not a flame ok? Like the first guest review I have received.**

 **Guest: Hm... Well, I guess you're going to see it now aye? I hope this chapter is as enjoyable as the rest of the chapters so far, since I did put a good amount of work into this. I mean, roughly 5,000 words, minus the A/N right here? That's what I'm talking about when it comes to work. I mean, it's not to long but not to short in my personal opinion.**

 **Also, Thank you Akhorahil, Animelover1521, Apocalypsebutterfly, Asami Chiharu, Bloody illusion, BlueFire2520, CappuccinoLover001, Crazysupernaturalangel, DarkDust27, Deserxfox, , Finding Glory Under Shadows, Forever Sleepy, itsmehamza, Kayums Rider, Kitsunes-Chan, Kurogami Mika, La Vicomtesse, Loverofthekiller, Madam3Mayh3m, MadamGuillotineTheSeraph, Meilinfan, Mirimi-chan, Nyxdragon2023, Ransor, Razorblade364, Redsoleil, RosieSpectre, Seven Dead Men Walking, SlytherinLibra, TheMistakenKing, WordsAreFun, Beanche, chi4ngo, dogsrulz77, fanfiction2010, lifluffyunicorns, jiemae, kitcat93, minouuu974, mujoona, randomy, scarletstrong, setsunaxx, spagtag, tarynfire, thechageoftheseason, and xXAxureFangXx for following.**

 **Thank you 15ls, Apocalypsebutterfly, Asami Chiharu, Bloody illusion, CappuccinoLover001, Crazysupernaturalangel, DarkDust27, DeserxFox, DolcitFool, Finding Glory Under Shadows, Itsmehamza, Kitsunes-Chan, La Vicomtesse, Loverofthekiller, Madam3Mayh3m, MadameGuillotineTheSeraph, Mirimi-chan, NinjaGirl9797, RadioPoisoning, Riku Yamamoto, Seven Dead Men Walking, SlytherinLibra, TheMistakenKing, basketball4444, chocolatecandy123, fanfiction2010, minouu974, scarletstrong, silly60, tarynfire, and xXazureFangXx for favoriting this story, both of you groups have no idea how much this all means to me.**

 **Also, a warning ahead of time, I'm testing something out to see if it works, when it comes to things like music in the story, so please, tell me if yes, or no, if it works for this story. I personally think that playing the song that I put there, even if it is the character's theme, works for the time you know? Its up to you guys though, so please let me know ok? Every Review helps when it comes to this story, and every idea is more them welcome, so don't be afraid. Lack of reviews is a thing that can kill a writer's story. But enough of my blabbering, let's just get to the story.**

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 _I don't own anything with Naruto, except for anything that is non cannon, ok? Everything else belongs to the creator, so support the official stuff!_

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 **Everydaylife of a cloud arc: Another troublesome day.**

An annoyed expression was something that not to many people saw when it came to Shikamaru, but she ignored the stares in favor of looking towards the pinkhaired brat in front of her. To be honest, she wanted nothing more than to give up and take a nap, but the motivation she had at the moment made it so that she couldn't even if she wanted to. Seriously, it was bad enough that she had agreed to fight the girl, but the fact that she was actually aiming to win? She was certain that more than a few people were going to stare at her in shock. Turning to the side a bit, she took note of her first friend, Choji, looking towards with a bag of chips. She raised an eyebrow at him, getting a shrug from the big boned boy.

Well, it seemed that her oldest friend wasn't going to be to surprised either way. Shika had proved more than once that she could get motivation, and both the Akimichi, and the Uzumaki that she was friends with, agreed when it came to that a motivated Shikamaru, while slightly scary, was nice to have on their sides. That kind of reminded her of the prank that she had set up with Naruto to get back at some of the bullies that had been going after Choji. The end result was several students of both gender being tarred and feathered in a style that was reminiscent of an old cartoon that Shika barely remembered from her old life.

 **[Play Naruto OST: Fake]**

The smirk that made its way onto face at the memory caused a screech of indignation to come from the pink haired banshee, as she charged towards Shikamaru. Letting out a deep sigh, along with a "What a drag..." The black haired nine year old moved out of the way of the punch, putting her leg out in front of her to trip the pink haired girl up, unfortunately for the Nara, that didn't cause her to fall out of the circle. Instead it caused her to be twice as angry as she charged once again.

"SHANNARO!" She yelled her fist heading for a direct path towards the Nara's head, who in turn simply moved to the side, before putting her leg into the same path as before, this time causing Sakura to jump, which in turn made it so that she couldn't avoid the knee that slammed into her back as a result.

Giving a deep sigh, while putting her hands back into her pockets, the Nara sent an even look towards the girl that she had just hit "What a drag... I seriously want to give up, but I can't at this point. Would just make my life easier and give up already?"

"Like hell!" Sakura screamed in response despite the fact that she was obviously in a fair amount of pain from the knee to the back.

Letting yet another sigh to escape her, the Nara looked towards the girl that was still on the ground. Seriously, did this girl even train? If she did, than a knee to the back like that wouldn't have kept her on the ground for so long. Seriously, she took harder hits at home when her dad decided to train her in something other the strategy. She wasn't even going to bring in what her mother did with her training. Chunin she may have been, but it wasn't because of her strength that she stayed that rank.

Moving to the side once more at the punch that was sent her way from the pink haired Kunoichi in training, Shika sighed again. Seriously, did this girl even know that she had just done the same thing three times in a row already? It was like she didn't even care that no matter what she did about her training. Sure, Sakura was smart, being the top Kunoichi in the grade showed that much, but she was telegraphing her attacks to much. If the fact that she wasn't even trying to dodge the pinkette's attacks said anything, than it was that she was book smart, but woefully inadequate with other things.

"Seriously? Four times in a row doing the same thing." She mumbled as the pink haired girl sent yet another punch at Shikamaru, which she dodged once again "If you're going to fight, then at least put some effort into it."

Another growl made its way out of Sakura's throat as she yelled "Like you have any room to talk! You're not even fighting back!"

"You do realize that you haven't been able to hit me once right?" The black haired girl asked, as she moved out of the way of another punch "What a drag... and here i was hoping to be able to nap in class for once."

Ignoring the glare that she was getting from Iruka since she had said that out loud, getting snickers from a lot of classmates, Shikamaru let out another sigh considering she probably wasted half of the first lesson of the day, and she wouldn't be able to stall any longer even if she wanted to. Moving out of the way of another attack, Shikamaru's hands left her pockets as she moved her hands out and sent a palm strike to the pink haired girls back, sending her tumbling out of the circle.

"Shosha Shikamaru!" Iruka spoke with a final tone, but a surprised one none the less.

From the looks that she was getting, she knew that people would be looking at her differently soon. If not for the fact that she didn't run away from a fight, than because of the fact that she actually _won_ a match instead of giving up right away. Of course the only thing she actually paid attention to though, was the fact that Naruto and Hinata were cheering in their own way, Choji moving to give a grin towards her, even as he kept his hands on the bag of chips that he usually had with him. Barely taking note of the fact that Iruka had told them all to go back to the classroom, She walked up to them.

 **[OST End]**

The first person to talk, as it was, wasn't naruto, but Choji, as he gave a teasing smirk towards Shika and said "I'm surprised that you didn't just run away from the fight like you normally do so that you can either sleep, or watch the clouds."

"Come on Choji! You need to have more faith in Shika-chan!" Naruto spoke loudly, getting a few annoyed looks from passing classmates, which he ignored with his bright grin still in place "I knew that she was going to win!"

Hinata, in turn, giggled a bit, her face a bit red, as she poked her fingers together shyly, even as her eyes darted between Naruto and Shika "Don't lie Naruto-kun. You thought Shikamaru-chan was going to run away as well."

"Who's side are you on?!" Naruto yelled with his face a bit red, even as a lazy laugh came from Shikamaru, getting an indignant moan from the blonde "Not you too Shika-chan!"

Giving a half smirk, the Nara pocketed her hands, as she walked beside her three friends "I'd say this is a drag, but that'd be a bit too predictable you know? Might as well take a page from the blonde idiots book."

All four of them burst into laughter, even as Naruto rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. It was obvious enough that he wasn't used to the joking still, but that didn't really matter. The four of them were thick as thieves, and it would take a lot to change that. Unbidden, a dark thought seeped into the back of the Nara's thoughts about what was going to happen when they became genin, before she forced it away. They still had a few years before that, and it wasn't really worth it to think about it. Thinking over a few things, the Nara laid back in her seat the second that she got into the classroom, her black eyes scanning the room.

A lot of the students ignored the four of them as they sat in relative proximity, Shino Aburame, and Kiba, sitting in front of her, Naruto, and Hinata, with Choji, the six of them being closer than the rest of the class if everyone was serious. Shino, while quite, didn't have a problem with Naruto like the rest of the class, and that put him into Shika's good books, unless he did something stupid. Kiba, on the other hand, liked to roughhouse with Naruto when he could get away with it. Honestly, she didn't know who had more energy at times, the dog in a human's body, or the energizer bunny from hell.

The chuckle that escaped her at that thought got some confused looks from her five friends, but seriously, it was just funny to think about it. The amusement quickly disappeared when her eyes landed on Mizuk-sensei again. While she had barely any knowledge of the place she had ended up, this bastard was one thing she couldn't forget no matter what she did. Considering that he had only recently begun to be Iruka's assistant, she hadn't thought up a lot of things to do to him, but she was going to.

Thinking about it, she was going to have to ask Naruto when got the chance to plan things out with him. Maybe even get her friends to help her with this endeavor. Shikamaru had to suppress the evil smirk that threatened to appear on her face at the fact that she was going to make this man's life a living hell. She would need to learn his habits a bit more before she could be certain, but once she did, than he was going to wish he wasn't a part of the class. Either way though, she needed to make sure it wasn't to bad since she didn't want him to leave the class.

Letting out a yawn, the black haired girl looked towards her teacher, before her eyes started to feel heavy. She had managed this long, which was a record to be honest, but it was time for her to sleep. She couldn't fight it any longer! Seeing amused look she got from the Hyuga Heiress, she knew that Hinata was going to lord this over her, but to be honest, she couldn't care less. After giving the girl a look that said 'go on without me' her eyes slipped closed without missing the giggle, and her eyes closed shut, barely noticing the comforting feeling she got from both of her classmates.

"You know, you _could_ have woken me up before Iruka threw an eraser at my head." Shikamaru grumbled even as she laid against the tree that was in the 'playground' area of the school where she and her friends say during lunch time, sporting a nice lump on her forehead.

A grinning Naruto just gave a loud laugh, as he said "Hey, you're the one who's lazy enough to sleep in the middle of one of Iruka-sensei's lectures!"

"I have to agree with the idiot this time." Kiba snickered, even as Akamaru barked with him in agreement.

The blonde, however, didn't appreciate the comment, as he glared at Kiba "What was that you mutt?!"

"You heard me you dumbass!" Kiba yelled, which in turn caused Naruto to tackle him to the ground, both of the rolling around, getting an exasperated huff from the Ninken puppy.

The rest of the group just let out amused expressions, or sounds as the two started to fight with each other again. Honestly, this was such a common occurrence that it didn't even surprise them anymore. Shikamaru let out a smirk as well, before she took out her journal, and decided that it was time to write another entry into the same book she kept things in most of the time. It probably wasn't the best time, but it was something she wanted to do, never wanting to forget her experiences. Thinking over it for a second, a smile made its way onto her face as she thought of where to start.

 _What a drag... First I get forced to walk around the village, even if it is my first time outside of the village, I was only three damn it! Why did my parents have to force me to go outside when all I wanted to do was watch the clouds for once? I never really had the chance to before, and that was definitely annoying. I mean, I don't ask for a lot, so is letting me watch the clouds for once too much to ask? I seriously hadn't been outside of the house all that much. But no, they just had to put me out into the open._

 _Anyway, moving on, I realized just how big the place I lived in was when my dad, Shikaku, brought me outside of the clan compound. Of course, the second that I saw the giant faces on the mountain, my mind went blank. I mean, wouldn't you do the same thing if you saw something that you could have sworn was fictional was in front of you, in person for that matter? Seriously there were four giant faces on a cliff off in the distance, with a large building that had the kanji for 'fire' on it, not to far off from where we currently were, and that was more than enough to make my mind go blank for a second. High I.Q. or not, if you were startled enough, anyone would freeze in shock._

 _Thankfully, my dad took it in a way that I was incredibly impressed by the village, which was also part of the reason I froze, but not the whole thing, which was why he said "I had the same reaction when I was your age and I saw Konoha This is the reason that I became a shinobi Shikmaru-chan. I want this to stay standing for a long time to come, and what better way than to do so from a high position where I can actually influence things?"_

" _Mendokuse... I get that you want me to be a Shinobi Ji-san, but isn't that laying it a bit thick?" I had asked with a slightly annoyed look towards my dad._

 _I was advanced for my age with words, but I was about average with everything else to be honest. Well, my intelligence was a lot higher than normal considering everything my dad did when I was still a little,_ little, _girl, but now? Now so much. I wasn't near what my father was in terms of I.Q. and I don't think I ever will be, but I was definitely above most kids my age. Of course, at the same time, my did did things that would increase my thinking more as I grew. Lazy as I was, I knew training when I saw it._

 _Getting a chuckle out of my father for my comment, the man just shrugged "I'm not exactly subtle with asking you to be a Kunoichi, I know, but it's easier than becoming a civilian and living you know. At least as a Shinobi you have some control over your life."_

"Now _you're pushing it too much." I responded right back, the annoyance replaced with an even tone that most people would misunderstand as annoyance still "But where are we going anyway? Are we going to Visit Choji-san?"_

 _To my surprise, my dad had actually shook his head at that, as he continued to lead me through the streets of Konoha, many people giving him smiles, and congrats on having a 'cute daughter' as they put it. My annoyance at them only grew as we continued on our way, before it vanished when I saw that we were at a park. I gave a my dad a blank look, looking to ask him what there were here for, but I cut myself off when I saw a blonde boy on a swing, a lonly look on his face. I looked around to see why no one was playing with him, only to see Parents giving him glares, while scolding their children about something._

 _Narrowing my eyes a bit, I took a hesitant step forward, only for my dad to grab my shoulder, crouching to my level "Listen Shikamaru, I'm not going to delude myself thinking that you're a naive little girl. That boy, he's shunned by most of the village for reasons I can't tell you. I'm not telling you to stay away from him. What I'm saying is, I'll let you decide what to do for yourself. Do what you think is best. I won't judge you either way."_

 _Pausing to take his words in, I stared at him for a few seconds, before turning back towards the blonde boy, a look of Motivation appearing in my eyes that would normally be considered uncharacteristic for a Nara. Looking back towards my father one last time, taking in his slightly surprised, but hopeful, look, I walked forward without looking back. I didn't know what was going to happen when I talked to the blonde, but I never regretted it, even now. After all, that blonde turned out to be my best friend, one I know that would go to hell and back for me. Funny really considering I'm a Nara, and I'd do the same thing with a smile on my face the whole way._

Shikamaru gave a sigh as she finished writing up what she had in her journal, a smile on her face, before a scowl replaced it as she saw that the rest of her friends were staring at her with amused looks "What a drag... Don't you guys have something better to do than stare at me while I'm writing in my journal?"

"I still say it's a diary. Guys are the only one's who have journals!" Kiba yelled with his same cocky tone of voice, even with dirt covering him.

Rolling her eyes, the Nara gave up with him, before she remembered something "Hey, you guys willing to come over after school tomorrow? It'd be kinda nice to have some of my friends over for once instead of me going over to wherever you live."

The rest of the group shared a look between them, none of them really surprised by the invitation, but they also knew that Shikamaru was right. The Nara had always went over to one of the other's houses, all of them coordinating 'play dates' as it were, with Naruto involved as well. While the blonde wasn't welcome in the Hyuga compound, he was welcomed with open arms pretty much everywhere else. Even Shino, we was normally silent, had everyone over to the Aburame compound once. No one in the ground really cared about the bugs, and that had earned them the favor of the clan as well.

Naruto was the first one to answer, with a shrug as he said, with his hands behind his head "I mean, I _guess_ I can. I mean, _was_ planning a prank or two on the villagers tomorrow, but I don't think that's as important as hanging out with my best friend!"

"Naruto-kun that isn't nice." Hinata spoke with a reprimanding tone despite her Shyness causing her face to be red as she spoke, but the fond smile on her face still stayed "But I think I should be able to come tomorrow Shikamaru-chan. I would have to lie to Otou-sama about it being for training though..."

Letting out a sigh at that, Shikamaru made sure to let her annoyance be known. Needless to say, everyone one else didn't look to happy about the reminder either. They all knew that Hinata's dad wasn't the best of father's, but none of them could really do anything about it either. All of them were the Heir's to their respective clan's, but that was just it, heir's, they weren't in any position to try and help Hinata, other than to give her support where she needed it. To be honest, they helped her out with her confidence a lot as well, considering she didn't faint at the sight of Naruto, or Shikamaru for that matter, when they talked now, unlike before. The two really did wonders for her confidence, but she was still extremely shy, and she didn't have a mean in bone in her body, considering the fact that she actually apologized after a match where she beat someone. It was kind of sweet thinking about it, but at the same time, Shikamaru knew that she wouldn't be able to do that once they all became actual Shinobi.

Deciding to ignore it for the time being, the Nara looked towards his friends, even with knowing that their lunch period was almost done. She had a reason to fight, that much was certain at the very least. Motivation was a strong force, and even for someone as lazy as Shikamaru, she was determined to keep going. Though, there was a part of her that seemed to laugh at the Determination, she squashed it. She wasn't going to have any doubts now, not while she had the ability to actually do something.

Letting out another yawn as she walked back to her clan's compound, a shift of her eyes showing that she was scanning the area around her still to make sure that no one was going to bother her. But of course, that didn't last long as a blonde girl ran right up to her, blue eyes narrowed in anger. Shika barely had the chance to look in her direction, before a fist hit her in the side of the head, sending the Nara tumbling to the ground, holding her cheek.

"The hell?!" Shikamaru asked with narrowed eyes at the blonde in front of him "What was that for you troublesome blonde?!"

The girl let out a growl, as she pointed right towards Shikamaru "You know exactly what that was for you Lazy bum! Apologize, now!"

"Ah man, you know what? I'm sorry, there." The Nara spoke trying to get things over with, even as she stood up, only to get another fist to the other cheek this time by a pink haired brat who had appeared not to far away.

Sakura pulled off the same pose as the blonde brat that was beside her, as she yelled "Don't half ass it! Apologize correctly!"

"What a drag, can't you two just leave me alone? I wanted to get home and take a nice warm bath before Dad got home." The girl on the ground groaned in annoyance.

Wasn't that the truth though? Her dad never left her any hot water when he got home before she did, and that was something that was just going to make things even worse as far as she was concerned. First, she managed to win a fight and get stared at in class the whole time, even the Uchiha was looking at her! Than there was the incident that left her with a bump on her head because of Iruka-sensei. And now there was this. Why couldn't she just be left alone so she could take a hot bath?! Seriously, she would go to the hot springs if she could, but you had to either be a Genin, or have an adult go with you, and her mother didn't like public baths, so that was out of the picture as well.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" A loud voice screamed at the top of their lungs, causing the black haired girl to pause and stumble a bit, at just how loud the voice was. Sending an annoyed look in the direction of Naruto's apartment, Shikamaru knew that the idiot had something to do with this but from the sound of it, the blonde wasn't in any trouble, which was why she completely ignored the voice, and continued to walk forward. She wasn't getting involved with whatever that was, that much was for certain.

Shikamaru was taking out of her thoughts, as she rolled backwards to get back onto her feet, seeing that the two had tried to attack her once again. Letting out a groan of annoyance at not only the fact that she got into yet another fight, but the fact that this was attracting a crowd as well. She could have sworn there was an Anbu watching as well, not even being obvious about hiding if she could see them.

Moving out of the way of yet another attack from the two, by simply backing to do so, the Nara groaned in annoyance once more "Come on you two, just knock it off, you're causing a scene, and being troublesome damnit!"

"NOT UNTIL YOU APOLOGIZE!" The two screamed at the top of their lungs at the same time.

The groan of annoyance turned into aggravation as her eyes narrowed in annoyance once more, and looked around the area as he put a bit of distance between the two of them. Around them were several venders, all of which were watching, and a few barrels as well, not to much out in the open. The crowd of people limited her movements due to them circling the three girls, but at the same time it also limited them. She knew that using Jutsu wouldn't be a smart idea, especially given her age, so that was out as well, but there was still something she could do. The ground was a bit uneven under her sandals, and seemed to be a bit grainy as well.

Scanning the ground for a second, the Nara dodged to the side side as the two attacked once again, kicking up a bit of dust in the process. Turning away from the two so that she could get into position, the black haired girl waited once more, before moving out of the way, causing the two to hit a particularly loose area of the ground, sending up dust and dirt that got into their eyes, and also caused yells of indignation. Ignoring that for the time being, the Nara moved behind the two girls, before shoving them forward, sending them tumbling into two barrels that had the tops open, but didn't have anything in them. The loud yells of anger from the two was the Nara's cue to disappear.

Turning around Shikamaru was about to run, but her blood froze at the sight in front of her. Standing in front of a crowd of civilians was her father, the head of the Yamanaka clan standing right in beside him. Shikamaru's wide eyes was the only thing that her father managed to see, before a fist crashed into her skull, causing her to clutch her head in pain, while crumpling to the ground with a yell of pain.

The black haired girl really didn't know what happened after that, but what she did know was that someone picked her up, and before she knew it, her mother was in front of her holding an Ice pack to the top of her head. Neither of her parents seemed to be angry at her, though her father did have a calculated look on his face as he sat across from her. Shika winced a bit when the ice pack moved across a particularly sore part of her head, her face being fine surprisingly. With the silence stretching out, the black haired girl started to feel awkward at her father's stare, before she sighed, and decided to try and say something.

"What happened at school to cause those two to attack you Shikamaru." Shikaku suddenly spoke, causing the child to wince a bit once again at the two mentioned.

Giving her father an even look, but serious none the less, the Kunoichi in training said "Those two are idiots honestly. They attacked me because I defended Naruto, and than I beat the pink one in a fight today."

"So you were really serious about doing this huh." Shikaku spoke, despite the confusion that was on his wife's face "You're actually aiming to, not only be the rookie of the year, but the Top Kunoichi?"

Shikamaru gave a sigh, before nodding, and looking towards the shocked look of her mother "I'm not going to stop being lazy just so you know."

"Of course not." The woman spoke with disappointment obvious in her voice, though there was a bit of pride in it as well "I get that I'm a bit unreasonable at times, but I do trust both you and your father you know."

Both of the blood related Nara's shared a look that the woman missed that showed they didn't believe it, but they also made sure to look away soon after. Shikamaru, figuring that it would be better for her to continue, spoke of what she did during the fight, her father giving his input alongside her mother on the fight. She was still getting used to the idea that she was actually going to put effort into what she was doing, but she listened anyway. Evidently though, as she continued to talk, her father gained an amused look, almost like he understood something that she didn't.

With the explanations over, after telling them about the invitation she gave, both of her parents had an amused glint in their eyes, though her mother spoke before she could question it "Well I'm just glad you're safe. It would be too troublesome if you ended up injured now of all times."

"I also have some news for you Shikamaru." Shikaku spoke, ignoring the fact that his wife had called something troublesome without realizing it "I got things going in the right direction with the teams. It won't happen this year, I couldn't get that, but instead I managed to get it so that next year will be when it starts. You still have a few years to go before you graduate, so I wouldn't worry about it for now."

There was something that he wasn't telling her, that much Shikamaru could tell, but with a sigh, she put her hand onto her head, making it so that the icepack didn't move, as she tried to get more comfortable in the chair she was sitting in "Can I just sleep here for once? I don't think I'll be able to move without getting a headache in the process."

The older of the two Nara's looked towards his wife with a raised eyebrow, causing her to roll her eyes in the process, while crossing her arms "Fine, just this once ok? I don't like the idea, but just this once is fine."

Shika gave her mother one last smile that showed her thanks, before she got comfortable, and fell into the embrace of sleep instantly. If only she knew what tomorrow would bring.

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 **So? What did you guys think? I mean, I really do want to know? I'm not the type to give out questions to see what you guys think, and instead ask you guys to tell me what I need to fix. I love hearing from you guys, so please let me know what you guys think! I don't know how many of you guys are reading this, but those of you who are, please review. Even a comment as simple as 'This was great' is enough to bring a smile to my face and keep me motivated with my story you know? Thank all of you for reading this none the less.**


	4. Arc 1: Surprise surprise

**Whoo! Hello everyone, and just to say this ahead of time, I'm sorry its taken me so long to get this out, but between just how long the chapter is, and the fact that I have a new job, its not a surprise really that it did take me so long. Even as you're reading this, I'm working on the next chapter, at least until I have to go to work, but don't worry, I'm going to try my best to get chapter's out as soon as I can. I won't promise them, since you know, there are always things that will make it so that you can't really update and all of that, but i'll try my best to get it out when i can.**

 **That said, I'm really happy with everything! Between the 29 reviews, the 52 favorites, and the 71 followers? I don't think I'll be able to put every single name up anymore like I did for the last chapter. Either way though, Thank every single one of you people who have followed, favorited, and reviewed. Also! If the people who put this story in for the 5 communities are reading this as well, thank you also ^.^ All support, even if it's just that, is more than welcome!**

 **One more thing though, this is the longest chapter I've managed to write at 7,000 words, and this is also the last chapter when it comes to the 'Daily Life Of A Cloud arc. I get that it was short, but this was still something that needed to be separated, so it was a Mini Arc more than anything. I hope no one minds that. Anywho, let's get on with the chapter!**

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 _I don't own Naruto, or anything cannon involving it. Anything Non-canon, however, is mine._

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 **Daily life of a cloud arc: Surprise surprise.**

 **-The day before, right after school-**

Shikaku let out a sigh as he looked around for the kids that his daughter called friends. He knew that one of them was the trouble child of Konoha, Naruto Uzumaki, but the others were a mystery to him considering the fact that they had never actually been to his house before. That actually annoyed him a bit, but he assumed that was more because of the fact that she had never gotten the chance to invite them over. Well, no matter what, tomorrow was the 22nd, and since it was september, he was certain that the rest of them didn't know her birthday. She hadn't invited anyone over for her birthday the last four years since she thought it was 'to troublesome' for people to celebrate the day she made it into this world.

That was what she had said, but there seemed to be something else that was keeping her from telling anyone her birthday. It was almost like she didn't think of her birthday being the 22nd of September. He could read people, his daughter as well, but he couldn't understand why she was like that. There always seemed to be a bit of a melancholy feeling around her during the 7th of april, but other than that, there wasn't anything that he actually could see that would be the problem. He was certain that she would tell him eventually, but the question would be when she would open up.

Ignoring that for the time being, Shikaku, in a Henge, walked up to the teachers lounge, before dispelling said henge, he didn't want his daughter finding out about this after all. Knocking on the door, and waiting a second, Shikaku's eyes landed on Mizuki, the teachers assistant. The white haired chunin sent a wide eyed look towards the Jounin commander, before he swallowed thickly, and let go of the door. The guys nervousness was understandable, but the fear was something that caused Shikaku to narrow his eyes a bit in suspicion. Deciding to leave that alone for the moment considering what he was trying to do, the Nara put his hands into his pockets.

"I'm looking for Umino Iruka?" Shikaku asked, while looking at the Chunin in front of him with a hard gaze, showing that he wasn't going to go away until he talked to the person that he was looking for.

Swallowing thickly, the Chunin led the Jounin commander into the room, and to the teacher that he was looking for, who was currently grading some papers with a sigh "Uh, Iruka-san? There's someone here to see you."

Looking up from his paperwork, the teacher was about to say that he had work to do, and that it could wait, until he saw who it was. The same wide eyed look appeared on the Chunin's face, but his expression didn't show fear, at least not in the same way that Mizuki's did. That was suspicious enough to warrant an investigation on the other Chunin, but just as before, it could wait for the time being. This was more important as far as he was concerned considering the fact that it involved his family. He didn't understand why his daughter didn't want her friends to know what was going on, but he was going to make her smile tomorrow at the very least. It was her birthday after all.

"You're Umino Iruka correct?" The Jounin commander asked with a serious tone as he took a folding chair and set it in front of the teacher after Mizuki left "You are not close to being in trouble just so you know, I just have a few questions for you actually."

Calming his breath, the teacher set down his pen, before putting his hands in front of him "Sure, what do you need from me? I'll help if I can."

"I need to know my who my daughter is friends with to be honest." The father responded right back, a smirk on his face as he leaned back a bit in the chair "I was planning on something for tomorrow, and I need to find her friends so that I can set it into motion."

The teacher's look soured a bit at that, as he sighed, putting a hand to his forehead, and nodding after a few seconds "I understand. The group that she tends to stick around Usually is Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Choji Akimichi. I'm sure you know who your daughter's best friend is so I didn't think I needed to tell you that."

Shikaku gave a nod, and a thanks to the Chunin, though his eyes did end up narrowing a bit when he realized the barely hidden contempt for naruto in the man's voice. He didn't blame the man though, considering the fact that it was mainly along the lines of uncertainty than true anger. He wouldn't be surprised if the man became Naruto's best friend not even a few months from now. That just seemed to be how the Blonde worked considering the fact that he was friends with the rest of those Clan heirs as well.

Walking out of the Academy, the elder Nara sighed as he realized that he was going to have to talk to Hiashi again after not even 2 hours. Hinata would no doubt be home by now, and that meant that he was going to have to go to the Hyuga compound to try and convince the man that his daughter should come to Shikamaru's birthday party tomorrow. Shikaku had nothing against the man, but he could be a bit stuck up, but he wasn't as bad as some of the other Hyuga as far as he could tell just from going to the compound once.

Getting those thoughts out of his head for the time being the scared man decided to speed things up and get the Hyuga compound using Shunshin. He knew that it would surprise a few of the Hyuga that often stood guard of the gates, but it was mainly because he was in a rush in the first place that he was willing to do it. The things he would do for his little girl, not that he would ever be able to call her that out loud. He shuddered a bit just thinking of the stuff that the Heiress could do if she called in a favor from the Blonde Knucklehead. That wasn't something that he was going to test.

Unfortunately for Shikaku, he was right when it came to causing the Hyuga to jump when he appeared, though at the same time, it would seem that they didn't attack, so that was a blessing at the very least. Getting into the compound wasn't that big of a problem either after saying that he needed to talk to Hiashi, though now that he was in, he was going to need to make sure that he planned things out. If there was any clan that could give a Nara a run for their money with mind games, it was the Hyuga. Especially since they could mask their emotions so easily.

Sitting in a traditional Seiza position, the Nara waited in the guest area for the Hyuga he was aiming to talk to, and thankfully, it didn't take long for Hiashi to arrive. He could see the Neutral look on the man's face, though his eyes betrayed the confusion that he had as to why Shikaku was here in the first place. Thinking about it for a brief second, Shikaku didn't think there would be to much trouble convincing the Hyuga to let his daughter attending Shikamaru's birthday party.

"Shikaku-san. I did not expect a visit from you. What is it that I may help you with?" The Hyuga spoke with his normal formal tone, though the slight inflection of curiosity in his voice was there, something that only a trained Shinobi would be able to catch, and even then it was be hard to hear.

Giving as formal a bow in his sitting position as he was willing to allow, the Nara spoke "I'm here to ask if your daughter would be able to attend my owns birthday tomorrow. Shikamaru hasn't told anyone her birthday, despite the fact that I know that a lot of them had joined her first birthday, but this time I wanted to surprise her, and considering Hinata is one of Shika's friends, I wished to invite her."

"Such short notice." Hiashi spoke with a frown, though he didn't immediately dismiss it, and instead thought over it for a second before nodding "Very well, I will allow her to attend, and I shall have it scheduled that she may stay the night if such an option is presented to her. I suspect that a present, while not needed, would be welcome?"

Shikaku gave a nod with that "Yeah, I don't think that Shikamaru would care all that much about presents considering everything, but if you think Hinata should bring one, I won't stop you."

Giving one more nod, the Hyuga head stood up while inclining his head "I wish to thank you for informing me of this. While I do not necessarily agree with my daughter not training tomorrow, I will not protest as your daughter has proved to be the confidence booster that Hinata sorely needed. She and Hanabi are evenly matched as it is now, and that has caused a shortage on headaches for me."

Neither Jounin needed to talk to know what that meant exactly, since they both knew. Not even thinking about it, Shikaku left and went towards his next visit, the Inuzuka clan. To be honest, the Nara never understood why the strictest clan was situated right next to the rowdiest of them, but it wasn't something that he was going to bother trying to figure out. It had caused him to many headaches as a kid thinking about it. A normal person had upwards of 70,000 thoughts per day, with a genius having even more. It really wasn't a surprise that Laziness was a habit for a lot of the Nara clan's members considering this.

As it turned out, he didn't even need to get into the compound before he had Tsume bowling him over, asking him why Shikamaru never told Kiba her birthday. Word between the two clans traveled fast, and after giving the same talk to the Inuzuka, she agreed to have Kiba and Akamaru over tomorrow as soon as she could manage to get him over. A smirk made its way onto the Nara's face at the excited look that the clan head had, even as she crashed straight through her clan's gate, yelling at the top of her lungs for Kiba. Whatever it was that had Tsume going crazy right now, was amusing, and he was just glad that he didn't have to deal with it. A crazy Inuzuka was one of those things you never really knew how to deal with, and never really wanted to either.

Getting Choji able to come wasn't that hard either all things considered, especially since Shikaku found him on the way thought the market area, a large amount of food on his person. With how the Akimichi eat, it didn't really surprise him all that much, but of course, having Choji there was well helped. Finishing that up as fast as he could, Shikaku headed towards Naruto Uzumaki's appartment next. He knew that the boy hadn't met him, so he was planning on seeing the boy either glaring at him in confusion, or staring at him in fear.

"Ah! You have to be Shika-chan's dad!" Was the response that the blonde yelled when he saw the scarred visage of the man in front of him "I mean, you two do look a lot alike, though you're a bit scarier with the scars on your face."

An amused look appeared on Shikaku's face at the blunt tone that the blonde had spoke with, even as he motioned for wanting inside of the house. That was enough to cause a bit of suspicion to appear in the blonde's eyes, but he did what he was asked anyway. Shikaku figured that he was being cautious because of how not to many people actually liked him, but he hadn't done anything to cause the blonde to not like him yet, though there was no reason for him to trust the Jounin commander either, something that Shikaku was aiming to change.

Sitting down on a couch that looked like it had seen better days, the Jounin commander put his hands together, as the blonde say across from him in an equally roughed up wooden chair "Alright Naruto, I'm curious about something. What do you think of Shikamaru?"

"I think she's awesome!" Naruto spoke with a large grin, his blue eyes lighting up in happiness as he talked "Shika-chan can be kind of scary when she's mad at me, usually when i wake her up, but she's really nice to! She was my first friend, and she didn't care about what the other parents said to her about leaving me alone. I don't know what would have happened if I didn't become friends with her, but she gave Hinata-chan a big confidence boost as well! I didn't understand it at first when Hinata-chan fainted around the two of us, but after Shika-chan explained it, I got it and tried to help her!"

Shikaku's eyes narrowed a bit as he leaned forwards, a smirk on his face "Does this mean that you have a crush on my daughter Naruto-san?"

 **[Play Naruto OST: Fooling mode]**

The blonde's blue eyes went really really wide at that question, before he screamed at the top of his lungs "WHAT THE HELL!?"

Outside of the Apartment several people, including Shikamaru, paused or stumbled due to the loud voice. Even a few birds flew off due to it, though the black haired Kunoichi sent an annoyed look in Naruto's apartments direction. Shikaku, on the other hand, was snickering internally at the shock that the blonde had displayed. He was certain that the Hokage had heard it all the way from the Hokage tower for that matter.

"What would you even ask that?! I mean, aren't dad's supposed to be really protective of their daughters or something?!" The blonde asked, while backing up a bit, the Panic obvious in his voice as he looked towards the Jounin commander.

Giving a smirk, Shikaku shrugged "Well, I mean, Shikamaru can take care of herself, so why would I need to be over protective? Any idiot that hurts her would end having to deal with her after all."

"That doesn't mean that you should ask a question like that outta nowhere damn it!" Naruto yelled once again, pointing his finger at Shikaku once again, showing that he wasn't happy with this.

Gaining a slightly chagrined expression, the Jounin slumped in his chair "Come on, is it so much to ask for Shikamaru to actually have someone who likes her."

"But-"The blonde started, before he hung his head in a similar manner to the man in front of him "No It's not..."

 **[OST end]**

About a minute later, the two men were across from each other once again, all joking aside, as Shikaku said "Well, I originally came here to ask if you would be willing to distract Shikamaru for most of tomorrow as me and the rest of your friends set everything up for her Birthday party. I'm guessing that she hasn't even told you the day?"

"No she hasn't as a matter of fact." The blonde spoke with squinted eyes, his arms crossed, even with his head facing in Shikaku's direction "But I have noticed that she tends to be a bit depressed around this time of year. I don't get what's up with that, but I'll help if you think she'll smile because of it."

Giving a nod and a smile towards the blonde, the Nara clan head stood up "I don't expect you to bring anything for a present tomorrow, but I won't argue if you do. I mean, my daughters best friend should know what she likes right?"

"You're not trying to guilt trip me, are you old man?" Naruto asked, his squinted eyes under downturned eyebrows showing annoyance "You wouldn't have to in the first place, I mean, I'd do this type of thing without asking! Making her happy I mean."

Shikaku let out an amused smile towards the blonde, as he stood up to leave, putting his hand on top of the academy students head, getting a narrow eyed look of confusion "Well, just make sure to treat her right when you finally get the courage to ask her out."

The Nara left the frozen blonde who started yelling in frustration the second that he managed to get out of the apartment, something that caused yet another smirk to appear on Shikaku's face. It was plain as day, even for him, that the blonde had a crush on Shikamaru already. Though that did cause him to wonder about the Hyuga girl that she was friends with as well. The girl had been given a confidence boost if what he heard was right, so where did that leave her in the whole situation.

Deciding that it was best not to get into that for the time being, Shikaku paused as he spotted a familiar blonde head in the crowd that was gathered in front of him. Frowning slightly, the Nara walked through the crowd of Civilians to stand next to Inoichi, right as he saw his daughter move out of the way of the attack of Inoichi's daughter, and a pink haired girl, sending a small amount of dust up into the air. Seeing how she had moved to a different part of the circle, Shikaku's eyes started analyze what his daughter was doing, before a soft smirk made its way onto his face as he saw the soft dirt under foot.

The two girls trying to hit Shika, charged at her once again, showing that their training was still lacking, before they hit the spot that his daughter had been a second before. The dust that was sent upwards, caused the two that attacked to start coughing due to the fact that there was just so much of it. Shikamaru took the chance a second later to push the two girls into a couple of empty barrels that were near the spot that the dust had been picked up at. Turning around, it looked like she was about to get out of there as fast as she could, but she seemed to freeze at the sight of her father.

Shikaku's scowl grown, however, once the two girls that Shikamaru had dealt with, hit her in the back of the head, causing her to crumple in on herself in pain "Alright that's enough! You two, what the hell was that for?"

The two girl's, with still angry looks on their faces were about to say something obviously, but Inoichi's daughter stopped when she saw who it was, her skin going even more pale if that was possible, the pink haired girl, however, obviously didn't know who it was, as she yelled "What does it matter to you?!"

"Well, considering I'm a clan head, Jounin commander, and father to the girl you punched? A lot." Shikaku spoke with a Lazy tone, which caused the pink haired girl to pale as well, even as the Nara looked towards his friend "Think you can deal with these two? I need to get Shika to Yoshino."

Inoichi gave a smile towards his friend, along with a nod "Yeah, I can do that. I hope that me and Choza are invited for tomorrow as well?"

"Like I would leave you two out of it." The Nara spoke as he picked Shikamaru up, seeing just how large the lump on her head actually was, and the fact that she still had her eyes closed at the moment. Whatever that pink hair girl did, it would seem that she was considerably stronger than she made herself out to be.

After explaining everything to her, and letting her sleep on the couch, Yoshino and Shikaku decided to talk in the Kitchen about tomorrow. It would seem that while Yoshino didn't have a problem with it, Shikaku would need to help with everything as well. To his wife's surprise though he actually agreed to it. She was pleasantly surprised nonetheless about that and had even agreed to do most of the cooking, so long as he did everything else with whoever it was that was going to help him. The only thing now was getting his daughter distracted for the day. He really hoped that Naruto would be able to help out with that, even if the blonde already said that he was going to try at the very least.

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Letting out a groan of annoyance, Shikamaru tried to get back to sleep, but after a loud crash in the Kitchen had sounded off, she couldn't manage to no matter what she did. Guess that served her right for wanting to sleep in the living room for once. Despite how comfortable the couch was, the Nara heiress should have figured out that it was going to be loud once her mother started to do what she normally did when it came to breakfast. The only problem though, was the fact that it didn't smell like eggs or bacon coming from the kitchen this time.

Frowning a bit in confusion, the 10 year old, took the blanket off of her, about to get up and go into the Kitchen, only for a certain head of blonde hair to catch her attention out of the corner of her eye. The blonde, it would seem, was trying to sneak up on her, but that seemed a bit moot at this point. Letting out a Lazy sigh, the dark haired girl, took a single step back, causing Naruto to completely miss the girl, with a loud squawk of surprise, and indignation. He ended up landing with both of his arms crossed, but still held out in front of him, with wide blue eyes.

Looking down towards her best friend, the Nara put a hand to her head "Ah geez... What are you doing here so early Naruto? I would have met up with you later today if you had asked yesterday. I mean, I thought you guys were coming over here and all, and I didn't know you knew where I lived."

"I wanted to invite you to have breakfast with me!" The Blonde let out with crossed arms after sitting with his legs and arms crossed on the floor, a scowl on his face under his goggles "C'mon Shikamaru-chan, you never eat breakfast with me!"

Giving a flat look towards the blonde, she crossed her arms as well, while looking at said boy "That's usually because of what you get for breakfast. I can't live on Ramen you know."

"Well fine, I guess you don't want the Miso and Mackerel than!" Naruto spoke with a stubborn tone, as he turned away from the Nara with a scowl "I went through all this trouble to find out where you live, and ask your dad what you're favorite food was, and now you're acting like this!"

Swallowing thickly to try and keep the Saliva down, the black haired girl took a step forward "Now wait just a minute. I said I can't live on Ramen, I didn't say I didn't like the stuff, but does Ichiraku even sell Mackerel?"

"Of course they do! I mean, they have fish cakes with Ramen as well you know!" Naruto spoke, his blue eyes scrutinizing his best friend to make sure that she didn't insult his favorite food "So are you coming or not."

Shika stayed silent for a second, before she swallowed thickly once again, and said "Just let me get dressed."

The grin of Victory on the blonde's face was enough to sour her mood a little, but she decided to ignore that for the time being. She never had to deal with this before, a friend that actually cared enough to find her house to ask her parents things. This life or the last, it didn't matter, she wasn't used to it. That, of course, didn't mean that she wasn't going to be happy with this. If Ichiraku was serving her favorite foods than she was probably going to visit the place more, though she wasn't going to live off of it like a certain blonde idiot.

Ignoring those thoughts for the time being, the black haired Kunoichi in training decided to change things up a bit, and instead of grabbing the same old T-shirt with the Nara symbol on it and a pair of black pants, she grabbed a pair of shorts that stopped just above her knees, and a black Tank-top that was a bit too big for her. Throwing a long sleeved green shirt over it, the front open, the girl was ready, and considering that the clothes were actually breathable, she could defend herself in case two fangirls decided that they wanted to try and attack her again.

Letting out a yawn due to still not being completely awake despite being up for at least ten minutes now, Shikamaru put her hands in the pockets of her shorts, while going down stairs. Putting a hand to her mouth while yet another yawn made's way out of her mouth, the Nara looked towards Naruto, who was starting to stare at her. Raising an eyebrow at the boy, he blinked a few times, before getting up, and leading the way a bit faster than what was really needed, though it was still slow enough that Shikamaru could follow at her normal pace.

Naruto was conflicted. He knew that he needed to distract her friend so that Shikaku could finish everything else that they needed to plan at the clan compound, but the fact was, he didn't expect the girl that he was accompanying to be actually willing to come with him, bribe or not. He thought that he was going to have to actually fight with her a bit to actually get her to come along, so the fact that after just mentioning the girl's favorite food, she was more than willing to come along, was a little surprising to say the least.

Now though, he had no clue what he was going to do after the two of them finished eating. From what the girl's father had said, he would need to distract her for at least a few hours, but eating would only distract her for a half hour at the most. So when they arrived at Ichiraku, and he said that he was going to pay for it this time, he let out a nervous breath as he saw the calculating look that his best friend was sending his way, despite the fact that she wasn't arguing with him. He was going to need to hold back a bit with his own portion at the very least though.

"So, what are you trying to do with inviting me out here to eat Naruto?" Shikamaru asked with her normal tone of voice as she looked towards the boy, a piece of fish on the way to her mouth between chopsticks "I mean, you don't normally invite us to eat with you outside of school you know."

Naruto froze mid bite of his own food at her comment, before he swallowed thickly, and looked away from her, a bit of red on his face in the process "W-well, you always seem to be a bit, I dunno, depressed around this time of year? Thought I'd bring you somewhere to get your mind off of whatever it is that gets you down in the dumps."

"You're an idiot." Shikamaru spoke with a sigh, though the smile on her face showed that she didn't mind it all that much either, at least from what Naruto could tell when he looked towards her "But I'm stupid if I said that you weren't perceptive. I mean, I thought I had a good hold on my emotions so that i didn't worry any of you guys."

The blonde let out a nervous chuckle at that comment, putting his chopsticks down for the time being "Well, Hinata noticed too, but she didn't think it was a good idea to mention it. I just followed along with her since she's, you know, better with people."

A light chuckle was the response from the black haired girl, as she set down her chopsticks as well, the Miso already gone, but a bit of the Mackerel still in front of her "I guess I was a bit obvious with it, haven't I?"

"Nah, I don't think so." Naruto responded a second later, sending a side glance towards his friend "I mean, I'm not the best at noticing things like that, but no else seemed to have noticed it yet either, with Choji having some, uh..."

"Suspicions?" Shikamaru supplied with an amused look.

Giving a nod along with a sound of agreement, the blonde continued "Yeah! He's got a few of those, but I don't think he knows what it is just yet. _What is_ it that bothers you so much about this time of year anyway?"

Shikamaru stopped for a second as she looked towards her friend, a piece of Mackerel halfway to her mouth. Setting it down softly, the black haired girl let out a sigh as she said "That's not something I'm ready to give up yet you know? I'm sure you've got things that you don't want me to know."

"I think I get it. But I'll always be your friend you know that right?" The blonde asked loudly, his face flushing a bit in embarrassment as he spoke "I mean, you have me, Hinata, Kiba, Choji, and Shino to, but don't forget that I'm you're best friend, got it?!"

Letting out an amused smile, the black eyed girl simply nodded the next piece of fish disappearing from in front of her, along with the last of the Miso Ramen that it had been placed in "Yeah yeah you troublesome blonde. Just don't get all overprotective me got it?"

An indignant yell was the only response, as three occupants of Ichiraku ramen, aside from the blonde, started to laugh. Despite this though Shikamaru knew that she would have to tell someone soon, but for the moment, that wasn't going to happen. Was it so wrong that she wanted to have things stay the way there at the moment for awhile? She knew that the Shinobi world wasn't going to be so kind to her, or her friends for that matter, but she just couldn't help herself with wanting to keep things the way they were for awhile, even if it meant things being harder on her later on in life.

* * *

Whatever was going on, Shikaku knew that it was going to annoy him. For the past 3 hours everyone had finished with the decorations, what few there were, and now they were just waiting for Naruto to get back with Shikamaru. The fact that he didn't give the blonde an exact time frame was something that was his own fault, but 3 hours of waiting? That was something that annoyed him to no end. Whatever was going on, the blonde obviously did his job right, but the rest of the adult guests were starting to get irritated. The children however...

"I don't know about that Choji-kun. I mean, Naruto-kun is unpredictable, so it makes sense." Hinata quietly spoke, the current conversation being about Pranks of all things.

Shino gave a nod of agreement, alongside Kiba, as the Aburame said "Naruto-san would be more than able to do as such. Why? Because I have heard stories of Naruto managing to outrun Anbu after some of his pranks."

"The blonde's an idiot when it comes to a lot of things, but even I know not to mess with him when it comes to pranks." Kida spoke, a large grin on his face, Akamaru barking his agreement.

Choji, on the other hand, stubbornly stuck with what he thought, as he said "I don't know about that. I mean, Iruka-sensei can usually find him, so how would he be able to set up a prank in the classroom without sensei finding out first?"

"Easy, he just goes in right when the academy opens!" Kiba loudly spoke in a tone that made it seem like he had the best idea ever "It's what I'd do!"

Letting out a soft giggle, the only Hyuga in the group, gave a smile towards the Inuzuka "You're not wrong Kiba-kun. Still, I don't think sneaking into the academy early is much Naruto's style."

"Yeah, I guess you're right there." The dog owner agreed reluctantly "Though, what about Shika? I mean, you're best friends with her and the blonde right? Would she help him with his pranks?"

Hinata paused for a second, before shrugging showing that she didn't know "Shikamaru-chan is hard for anyone to get a read on, and I'm really no different."

Shikaku let out an exaggerated sigh, as he looked towards Inoichi and Choza, the latter of which, was trying to discreetly eat something, but Hiashi, who had decided to join the party, was sending the large man an intense stare, byakugan not activated, but it being intimidated none the less. The result was the Akimichi to slowly set down the food that he had back onto the table near him. It would seem that even if he wouldn't show it, Hiashi was getting just as annoyed with the situation. It was a good thing that Yoshino had decided to start cooking things a couple of hours ago or else she would be just as annoyed as the rest of them, and that was something that Shikaku didn't need at the moment.

"JUST SHUT UP ABOUT THAT ALREADY!" A loud voice suddenly spoke out, the voice recognizable for every single one of the people that were in the Nara house, though that also caused a lot of relief to go through the Adults.

A lazy light, if that was possible, sounded out after that, as the voice of Shikaku's daughter spoke up "Hey, you were the one who decided that it was a good idea at the time. I'm just glad I wasn't caught up in the blast. Didn't really like the idea of smelling of rotten fish for a week."

"I wasn't aiming to hit you anyway!" Naruto's indignant voice spoke, up, getting a few snickers from the other children that were in the Nara house even as everyone heard the two getting closer "You know that I was aiming to hit the teachers for being so stupid!"

A snort was heard from Shikamaru as she stood in front of the door of the house, her silhouette obvious against it "Yet all of the teachers, and even a lot of the kids, call you stupid."

"You know that I'm not stupid! I can be an Idiot, but I'm not stupid!" Naruto responded right back with indignation obvious.

A snicker answered him this time, as the girl he was standing by said "Going by definitions, those two are pretty much the same thing. You know that right?"

With a laugh that surprised some of the people inside of the house, the Nara opened the door to the house, her black eyes narrowing a bit when she saw most of the lights in the house off. Walking into the house, and not seeing anyone, she was immediately put onto her guard, a hand reaching towards the Kunai pouch that she usually kept on her person. She couldn't hear anything for that matter either. She couldn't even hear her mother making food, which she should have been doing at this point. It was almost like no one was home.

Shikaku let a smirk fall onto his face as he realized that his daughter was taking her training seriously, judging by her reaction, he understood exactly what she was thinking. Though, now that she thought about it, he needed to get her to train with seeing in the dark better. At the moment she was practically blind walking into the house. That was good for the moment considering her reflexes (he hoped) weren't developed enough for her to attack before thinking. Looking to the side and seeing Choza about to turn on the lights, Shikaku nodded, before sitting back, so to speak, to watch what happens.

The lights flashed on in an instant, and everyone jumped up, yelling the exact same word "SURPRISE!"

* * *

Shikamaru, in turn, jumped a foot of the ground, literally, as she backed up, her black eyes wide with shock, and confusion. Shikaku knew that she was looking around to see her friends, and it would seem that she had even forgotten her own birthday. When the shock gave way to the confusion, Shikaku let out an obvious chuckle, causing his daughter's attention to turn towards him, the questioning look that she sent his way, making the smirk on his face grow a bit.

"So you actually forgot what today is Shikamaru?" Shikaku asked with a smile that showed that he was amused, though his eyes reflected his confusion as well as to why that was "Or did you not want to celebrate the day you were born into this world?"

With all of the adrenaline in her system gone, the black haired girl sent a glare towards her dad, a hand on her forehead "Or maybe it's just that I didn't care either way? The surprise definitely wasn't what I needed at the moment either though."

"I tried to tell them that it wasn't a good idea Shikamaru-chan, but they didn't listen to me." Hinata's soft voice spoke, though there was something almost like teasing in her tone as well "But you did look kinda of cute being startled like that."

Shikamaru's face grew into confusion once more, though her cheeks seemed to redden a bit as well in the process. She had never been called cute before, and the fact that Hinata of all people said it, made her confused as to the meaning of the words. Seriously, Hinata was one of her close friends, so was that a compliment, or was that teasing? She really couldn't think on that all that much because not to long after that Naruto and Hinata were staring at each other.

The blonde was staring at the hyuga with the same look that he normally did when he was trying to figure out something. His blue eyes were squinted and it was obvious that he was trying to figure out just what it was that Hinata was doing on that as well, but the soft spoken girl had a smile on her face, almost like she had won something. That was definitely something that was confusing for the Nara since she literally had no clue as to what was going on at the moment. Deciding to try and get things going, and ignore the staring contest, the Nara cleared her throat.

With everyone looking at her, she rubbed at the back of her neck in embarrassment, before she said "Well, uh, I guess since everyone is here, we can just get this going?"

That seemed to be the only cue that the two Akimichi males needed to start eating, though they seemed to be trying to make sure that no one was disgusted by them, or that they ate everything so no one else could get food. There was that and then there was also the fact that Hiashi was making sure to keep an eye on the two, even while he ate at a respectable pace. Internally Shikamaru smirked at the Hyuga since she knew first hand just how good her mother's good could be. There was literally nothing better in the girl's opinion, and she was going to ask for the recipes eventually.

Letting out a Yawn that showed she was getting ready to just head outside so that she could start watching the clouds, the black haired girl really wasn't surprised when the rest of her friends ended up following her into the back yard. Being the loudest of the group Kiba, who was normally rowdy, was a bit on the quiet side at the moment considering he knew just how calming cloud watching could be, let out a thumbs up to show that he would be quiet as well. Ending up in the backyard with a few trees that would easily cover them, the group ended up in a circle.

Every single one of them was laying on their backs in the grass, with Hinata and Naruto on the left and right of Shikamaru respectively. Across from Shikamaru, was Kiba, was had Shino on his left, between him and Naruto, while to the other side, between him and Hinata, was Choji, who was silently eating from a bag of chips, easily making sure it didn't crinkle.

The black haired girl of the group let a soft smile make its way onto her face as she realized just how comfortable she was getting around the group she was with at the moment. It wasn't a bad thing, that much was for certain, but she knew that she was going to have to tell them about her secret eventually, no matter how much she wished that she didn't need to. Still, that wasn't something that she was going to have to deal with right now.

A loud burp echoed through the area a second later, coming from Choji, making even the birds go silent for a second. Every moved a bit to stare at the Akimichi, who was blushing bright red, before all of them burst out laughing. These were the days that Shikamaru wished could last forever.

* * *

 **So... What did you guys think? To be honest, I thought this was a bit lackluster, but at the same time, i'm happy with how things turned out when it came to this, as Like I said before, this was just to establish relationships between the characters. I know that Naruto and Shikamaru were showed more than anything, but that is because, you probably guessed it, they are the main main characters, kind of like how team 7 was the main characters in Canon. Well, either way, I really needed to move on and start typing up the next chapter, which is something that I'm not going to give away.**

 **Once again, thank every single one of you who followed, favorited, or reviewed this story! Every bit of support is more help than anyone could believe, and i just want to thank all of you, but that would take up too much space, or so says my sister. Either way though, until next time!**


	5. Arc 2: The three T's

**Well here we are yet again with another chapter and all of that. I mean, I like where everything's going with this, and to be honest, I'm really happy with how everything is! Between the 36 reviews, almost 100 followers, and 73 favorites alongside almost 3,000 views in general? Yeah I think I'm really happy with where this is going and to be honest, things are starting out slow with this chapter, but the next chapter will be a bit different considering that I'm debating on wether or not to send team 10, which is the team that Shikamaru is on with Naruto, out to Wave. Let me know what you guys think ok? Yes or no to wave?**

 **On that note, let's move onto a different subject, the fact that I'm getting a lot of people asking about the pairings recently, and i'll be blunt, the Romance aspect of this story is going to be almost non-existent meaning that the pairing won't come to a head until way later on in the story, almost to when the story is done, and even then, its only going to be a bit on the side, because then there will be even more problems for the main characters making it so that they won't actually be able to do anything about it until** _ **after**_ **the war is done. In the end though, once I figure out what all of the options are going to be, I'll put a poll up for the pairing.**

 **That's about all that I got for the time being though, so yeah, How about we get to the story.**

* * *

 _I do not own Naruto or any of the Cannon characters this version of Shikamaru though is mine._

* * *

 ** _-_ To drift like a cloud: D ranks and C ranks Arc: The three t's Team's, Training and Troublesome.**

Shikamaru let out sigh, her head being held up by her hand as she stared in front of her. She couldn't believe that even with everything that she did, Naruto still hadn't passed. She had helped him so much, and even tried to get the Hokage to try and help him because of the fact that she was almost certain that he had to much Chakra to be able to make a clone. It was either that, or he had too much Yang Chakra in his system, something that the Nara clan tended to use when it came to their shadow Jutsu. The Nara Heiress would freely admit that she had some problems with the clone Jutsu as well because of the fact that her clan used Yang chakra, and didn't even touch the Yin, which was used in illusions.

A scowl made its way onto the girl's face when she remembered the look that appeared on Mizuki's face when he saw that Naruto didn't pass. Whatever it was that the bastard had planned now, it had already passed, and the girl really hoped that Naruto didn't do anything stupid. She knew that he was fine, though there was the fact that almost everything she actually knew ahead of time for this world was completely gone. The only things she remembered were things that had already passed, or things that she had learned. Needless to say she was a bit worried about what was going on.

Wincing a bit once a certain memory made its way to her mind, she knew that even if he didn't get into trouble, the two of them would have to apologize to each other eventually. She hadn't wanted things to turn into the way things did, but she knew that it was going to happen eventually. Sighing a bit to herself, she pulled out her notebook, and started to write.

 **-To drift like a cloud-**

 _Looking towards the Blonde that was by the swing at the moment, I knew that he hadn't passed. Hinata had told me that she had already tried to comfort him, but from what she had said, he didn't want it. Not to long after that was when Hinata had told me that I needed to try and help him. Really though, I didn't know how well I could help, but I wasn't going to not try. The two of us had been friends since we were kids after all, and that meant that I would try and help him at the very least. Seriously though, if he was going to be stubborn about it, I wasn't going to hold back._

 _Walking out of the shade of the tree I liked, I went straight towards the blonde that was just swinging back and forth, ignoring the parents that were sending glares towards him. I had to force back the sigh of aggravation I had when I saw his expression. He was always like this as far as I could tell. Being starved for attention, he didn't know how to react to a lot of things, and when it came to things like this, he tended to overreact. Not saying that she shouldn't be sad about this, but he tended to blow things out of proportion when they were small things. This, however, was something that I thought he was being stupid about considering that he had dismissed one of his friends._

 _Leaning against the tree that the swing was connected to, I didn't say anything to the blonde as his eyes continued to look towards the parents that were in front of the Academy that were congratulating their children. The silence, however, really didn't last long between the two of us, as the blonde spoke "I'm sorry..."_

" _What are you sorry for?" The black haired girl asked as she leaned back a bit more looking towards the clouds that lazily floated across the sky "I still think that you're going to become the Hokage eventually you know that right?"_

 _I flinched a bit when a fist connected with the tree near my head, and I looked up to see the blonde in question glaring at me "I failed again you know that right?! How can you still say that you believe me when I'm nothing but a failu-"_

 _A loud crack filled the air, as Naruto fell backwards, me being where he was a second ago, my hands in my pockets, but my feet positioned in a way that showed that I kicked him in the chin. Glaring towards the blonde that was staring at me with wide eyes "Alright, I've had enough of you being all Emo on me. I thought that was the Uchiha's job. How about you fight me and get it all out of your system?"_

 _The blonde let out a growl of anger, before he charged at me with a loud yell, with me dodging to the side to avoid the attack. The kick to the stomach showed that he was as unpredictable as he normally was. Decidedly ignoring the pain for the moment, I sent a knee to the blonde's stomach, causing him to back off, with the two of us a few feet away from him. For whatever reason I felt like I should have something hanging out of my mouth, but I shook that feeling away as just some stupid feeling of trying to look cool. Taking my hands out of my pockets, I grabbed the fist that Naruto sent my way, before sending him over my shoulder, only for the blonde in turn to hit me in the back with his heel._

 _Using the momentum of the attack, I dragged him with me, as I tumbled a bit, letting go of him, and springing out of the tumble, and sending my foot down towards the blonde's chest. He in turn rolled backwards, getting out of the way from the first attack. A Second later, he had his fists connecting with my chest, sending me back a bit with a slight cough. Moving to the side to dodge the second hit, I brought an elbow down on the boys back, sending him into the ground with a loud noise following it. Jumping back far enough to let him get up, I felt a hint of nostalgia._

 _This wasn't the first time that the two of us were across from each other getting ready to duke it out. This same situation happened years before when both of us were only 6 years old. I knew for a fact that the first time was a lot happier and both of us were more than happy to spar. This wasn't anything close to a spar. This was fight and the both of us knew it._

 _Both of us charged at each other without a single sound coming from either of us, but before we could actually do anything, a certain white haired bastard of a teacher got between us. I was glaring at him even as he restrained the both of us. I forced my hand out of his grip as quickly as I could, Ignoring him long enough to look at Naruto with a frown "I thought you wouldn't give up no matter what Naruto."_

 **-To drift like a cloud-**

The girl let out a sigh as she finished writing up that, but decided not to continue any further either. She knew for a fact that the blonde was going to be alright no matter what, but those words were a bit on the harsh side. She regretted them, that much was certain as well, but how was she going to apologize for it when she probably wouldn't see the blonde for awhile? She really needed to try and find him as soon as team assignments were over and done with. The Nara was not going to let this fester.

Letting out a groan, while also putting her head against the desk in front of her. Why couldn't she have friends that were at least a little bit normal? Originally she had just wanted to be a Shinobi so that she could help Naruto with whatever he was going to do, but she never planned on becoming big in the Shinobi world! What she did was causing people to stare at her, something that she wished they would just stop.

The black haired girl's eyes closed for a second, hoping to get some sleep, at least, until she heard Ino and Sakura come charge into the room, both of them yelling at the top of their lungs. Seriously, why couldn't they just stay quiet for one day?!

Looking up towards the commotion, she wasn't surprised to see the two fighting over which one of them was going to sit next to sasuke. Same shit different day pretty much when it came to that type of thing. But even with the distraction, Shikamaru's thoughts went back to her best friend and the fact that her words could have easily made it so that he hated her. The sigh that escaped her would have caught anyone's attention if they were neat by, but Hinata was on the other side of the room at the moment, while Kiba and Shino were talking, even if it was one sided. Of course that left Choji, but he wasn't one to talk while he was focused on eating.

The sound of the door opening caught her attention once again as she mentally counted the people that she had seen in the room before setting her head down. A frown made its way onto her face as she realized that everyone that had graduated was already in the room, so why would there by another person coming in if it wasn't a teacher?

Deciding to see for herself, even while a bit of hope was in her chest, the black haired girl's eyes widened as she looked towards the door to see a familiar blonde in an orange jumpsuit. A smile made its way onto her face as she saw him, before a grimace settled in its place when she thought that the blonde was going to start glaring at her.

She waited for a bit to see what the blonde was going to do, until he was standing right next to her, a satisfied smirk on his face "See? I did pass!"

"Of course you're too stubborn to let a fail like that." Shika spoke behind a smirk that was almost obvious as to what it meant "Well nice job either way. What did you do to get it anyway? Beat someone up that made it so that the Hokage gave the you band himself?"

Naruto looked to the side sheepishly as he began to rub the back of his head while looking away "Well..."

"You're kidding me right?" The girl asked while moving to the side a bit to let the blonde sit next to her "What a drag, you're not kidding are you?"

The blonde quickly shook his head, while also crossing his arms, a small frown replacing the sheepish look "Jiji said that I couldn't tell anyone about what happened, but it did happen! I swear it did!"

"Hey hey, I didn't say that it didn't did I you troublesome blonde." The girl grumbled while also leaning back to try and get comfortable "Either way, it doesn't really matter to me you know? You passed, that's all that matters... Er, sorry about being so harsh yesterday by the way."

Naruto just let out a laugh at the reminder, while he rubbed the back of his head "It's fine it's fine! I get that you were just trying to knock some sense into me. I kinda needed it actually..."

"...I didn't want to do that Naruto." The girl mumbled out, the regret obvious in her voice.

If the blonde heard her comment he didn't say anything about it, or he didn't get the chance to considering that Iruka chose that time to make his presence known. He gave a look over towards the blonde, a smile appearing on his face for a second, before his attention went back to looking over the majority of the students.

Clearing his throat to get the attention of everyone in front of him, the teacher held up some papers "Alright everyone quiet down, I know you're excited that you're really Shinobi now, but you're still only Genin, which means that the journey ahead has just begun. Keep in mind that as a Shinobi you do missions that help the village, and you get paid for it as well. With that said, we will create teams, and each of them will consist of three of you, and a Jounin sensei. Remember to follow your Jounin-sensei's instructions so that you can successfully complete missions.

Barely paying any attention to her teachers, Shikamaru set her head down to try and get a quick nap in, but that was shot down right away when she heard her own name being spoken. Looking up, she saw that Iruka was staring at her with an annoyed expression, something that only earned him a yawn, and her a piece of chalk upside the head.

"As I was saying! Team 7 will consist of Uchiha Sasuke , Aburame Shino , and Hyuga Hinata under Hatake Kakashi. Team 8 will consist of Haruno Sakura , Akimichi Choji , and Yamanaka Ino under Yuhi Kurenai. Team 9 is still in circulation, but team 10 will consist of Nara Shikamaru , Uzumaki Naruto , and Inuzuka Kiba, under Sarutobi Asuma."

Shikamaru frowned a bit when she heard the name of her Sensei, completely ignoring the yells of not only rage, but indignation, from Ino and Sakura about being on a different team from their 'Sasuke-kun' and not only that but on the same team. The black haired Kunoichi was just thankful that she was on the team of someone she not only knew, but could get along with. That went double considering both Kiba and Naruto were on hear team. Itg would be troublesome, with both of them being loud mouth's, but at the very least they wouldn't fight as much as if Naruto and Sasuke were on the same teams.

Letting out another yawn at the fact that today was going to be a long day, Shikamaru let her head hang off of her hand in a way that showed that she was half asleep. A lot of the students came and went, but it was starting to drag on for the Nata. She didn't want to fall asleep before her sensei made it to the classroom, but with the way things were going she really was going to end up falling asleep. Another yawn was the only warning that she got before her head dipped once again.

 **-To drift like a cloud-**

Naruto let out a yawn as he tried to keep his attention forward, but the sound of something hitting the desk next to him caught his attention. He shouldn't have been surprised, really he shouldn't, but finding Shikamaru right next to him sleeping like a log was not something that he expected. The fact that the door opened up not even a second later also didn't help things.

"Ah, team 10?" The guy that walked in asked as if he wasn't sure if they were in their or not.

The guy was tall, with brown eyes, olive skin, short black spiky hair, and a beard. His clothing consisted of the standard Konoha ninja uniform with the sleeves rolled up halfway, flak jacket, regular shinobi sandals and forehead protector. He also wore a sash that had the kanji for "Fire" marked on it around his waist, a pair of black bangles, and bandages wrapped around the arms of his sleeves. Naruto wasn't sure what to think of him, but he at the very least decided to speak up, even if he was a bit annoyed with the guy smoking in a school of all places..

Putting a hand up, the Blonde said "That would be us, but uh, She fell asleep."

"Well, I guess that means the two of you are going to have to carry her huh?" Asuma spoke with a sigh as he motioned for the two boys to do as such, the black haired girl being lifted off of the ground easily enough, the two following after the Jounin easily enough "Does this happen often? Her falling asleep I mena?"

Kiba nodded at that, Akamaru giving a bark in response as well as the genin said "Yeah, Shikamaru's always been lazy, so her falling asleep isn't that big of a surprise."

The Jounin let out a sigh as he continued to lead the way until they eventually found themselves at Yakiniku Q, a barbecue place that had kicked Naruto out before. This was one of the places that Shikamaru had actually liked going before she became friends with Naruto, and then the idiots that owned the place had denied him entry. With that in mind, Naruto's normally bright and cheery cerulean eyes darkened a bit with nervousness, and a hint of fear as their sensei stopped in front of the shop, a raised eye being sent towards the blonde.

"Something wrong Naruto?" The jounin asked, his tone carefree, though there was a hint of curiosity in his tone, as well as worry, something that the blonde wasn't used to unless it came from the Nara family really.

Shifting Shikamaru a bit as to make sure the girl wouldn't fall, the blonde sheepishly said "Well, these people kinda kicked me out awhile back when I went here with Shikamaru-chan, and well, you probably know why."

"Yeah I get it." The larger man spoke with a sigh, ignoring Kiba's confusion for the time being, as the smoker knelt down to the blonde's level "Listen kid, if someone kicks you out, or overcharged you for something now that you're a Genin they can get in trouble. Just keep that in mind alright? You're a Shinobi kid, it's your job to protect them. If they keep it up though let me know, ill help you out."

The blonde's eyes widened a bit at that, before a huge grin made its way onto his face as he realized what their jounin sensei meant. They couldn't overcharge him for anything anymore, and that meant that he might be able to actually get things that he wanted for once. Well, that was more towards food than anything. He knew that vegetables weren't bad so long as they were cooked, but he couldn't really afford anything but Ichiraku's because of the fact that every store he went to made the prices ridiculous compared to what they actually were just for him. It was aggravating to be honest, the only time that he managed to get anything for a decent price was when Shikamaru was with him, and that was because she was from an actual clan.

Naruto's mood was so good at the time that he actually completely ignored the glares he was getting from the staff, as the Jounin with him sent a cool look right back that made it so they didn't say anything to him in turn. After they finally managed to find their seats, Naruto made sure to set Shikamaru down gently as a way to make sure she didn't get hurt, but they knew she needed to wake up as well.

Deciding to be a bit mischievous, the blonde gave an evil grin towards Kiba, who was looking towards them obviously amused about the situation, despite the fact that their Jounin sensei was confused. Getting a bit closer to their sleeping friend, Naruto set his mouth just beside her ear, before yelling at the top of his lungs "WAKE UP!"

A loud yell of surprise was what was heard in response, Shikamaru trying to stand up on reflex, sending her knees into the table that was in front of them, causing a loud bang, before she held her knees, tears of pain starting to appear in the corner of her eyes, causing her to send a glare towards the blonde in response "What the hell was that for you troublesome blonde?!"

"Hey! I just did what our sensei told me to do!" The blonde refuted, causing the black eyed pre-teen to turn her gaze towards the Jounin, who was staring in exasperation with a cigarette in his mouth.

Letting out a sigh, the guy said "That wasn't exactly what I meant when I wanted you to wake her up Naruto. Anyway, I'm Sarutobi Asuma, it's nice to meet you guys I guess."

"That's nice and all, but you couldn't have, I don't know, shove me a bit instead of yelling in my ear?" The Nara asked irritably, a yawn already making its way out of her mouth once again, the pain in her knees all but disappearing, though her annoyance disappeared a bit when she smelled food "You know what? I don't care. I'm hungry, and I'll deal with this later."

Asuma seemed to deflate a bit when he realized that the Nara girl was just as Lazy as he thought that she was going to be, before he pulled out his wallet to see just how much money he had. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the fact that his sensei sighed in relief after looking into the leather wallet. The blonde didn't know what that was about, but he knew one thing, he was actually going to get good food for once! Of course the fact that Asuma was going to help him make sure he wasn't overpaying for things as well was going to help with that as well. All in all today was going to be the best day ever for the Naruto.

 **-To drift like a cloud-**

It was official, today was going to be the worst day ever for Shikamaru. She knew that she had to train to get better, and the fact that all three of them were friends made it so that Asuma didn't have to do another test, something about them already having teamwork, but that didn't matter because of the training. Making sure that she didn't fall over from almost stumbling on a branch, the black haired girl panted a bit while also trying her best to actual go along with what her sensei , this was just ridiculous, but if it meant that she could stay on an even level with the idiot blonde she was going to make sure became Hokage. Didn't make her limbs hurt any less though.

"Come on Shika-chan, you can do it!" The blonde idiot in question yelled out as he passed her for the third time today already, the weights on her arms and legs causing her some strain, but not enough to really do anything when it came to hurting her growth.

Sending a glare towards said blonde, the girl looked over towards Kiba, who at this point, was on the ground panting since he charged as fast as he could right out of the gates before she groaned "What a pain in the ass! Why couldn't I have gotten a Lazy sensei that would let me sleep for a few hours or something?!"

"Hey you were the one who said, and I quote ' _My dream is to make this idiot blonde Hokage with me by his side_ '" Asuma spoke from where he was standing beside Kiba, raising an eyebrow at the girl in response "Unless you meant that in the sense of Marriage or something."

That comment caused the girl to stumble a bit, landing straight on her face. Rolling over with a groan, the girl sent a particularly evil glare right at Asuma, one that most men knew meant trouble for them "Why the _hell_ would you even suggest something like that?! I'm thirteen for god's sake, and you seriously think I'm already thinking about the one commitment that should be permanent?! Not until i'm 30 at least."

That got a few stares but to be honest she didn't care. She was finally able to sit down without having to do anything. Letting out a groan, the black haired girl decided that she was going to put in an entry now that she had the chance, and pulled out her notebook, pointedly ignoring the Blonde idiot explaining that she wrote in some 'weird language that I can't read' to Asuma-sensei.

 **-To drift like a cloud-**

 _What a pain… First time training with my sensei and already i'm hurting like I got mule kicked by a horse. I don't know what's worse though, the fact that I'm going along with it, or the fact that I know that I have to do this to be able to stay standing on even footing with Naruto, and that I know it still won't be enough. Hell, I might be able to become an S ranked Shinobi eventually with what i'm doing, but that doesn't mean jack when it comes to a war. I don't know what it is, but I just have this… feeling that things are going to get a lot worse before they get anywhere close to better._

 _I can't explain what it feels like, and I don't really expect you, who will eventually read this, to understand what I'm feeling, but I just… I guess I feel like the Idiot blonde that I'm put onto the same team with is going to be right in the middle of all of this. I just, what is it that makes me feel like Naruto is going to be in the middle of what's going on? I just can't explain it, and to be honest, I don't think it matters whether or not I'm on the same team as him, he was going to end up in the middle of whatever is coming soon, and I'm not sure if I regret making it so that i could be on my friends team or not._

 _Then of course there was the whole 'introduce yourself' thing that Asuma did, but really, we all really knew what each other liked, except for him. The only thing we actually learned about him though was the fact that he liked to smoke, and play games, with that I might try and get him to play a round of Shogi or something. Either way though, I need to figure out something else about him eventually, since I don't even know what rank he is in the Bingo book, something that might help with knowing how good he is and everything._

 _Getting back on topic to the stuff that's happening to me right now, I'm exhausted after running around training ground 15 several times. The weights on my arms obviously don't help anything, but I guess Asuma Sensei either hasn't heard of Fuinjutsu, or he doesn't know enough to make seals that could help us get faster either way, I'm going to talk to him about it eventually, and that's really all that I have to say on that, but still I can't say that I'm not happy at the moment._

 _Running away from a fight that I wouldn't be able to win is kind of something that I would do at this point anyway, and by that point, the weight training is going to help me get faster. Thinking about it, I'd prefer to be a speedy fighter more than a physical one anyway. I got to of those on my team with Kiba and Naruto as it is. I guess we're going to be an assault and capture team considering everything. Kiba with his senses could track anything we might need to track, and Naruto is pretty much our main damage deal with how much Chakra he has, and then there's me with the Nara's Kagemane Jutsu._

 _Going on from that, I don't know why, but I just have this feeling that the Nara aren't using their Shadow's to the greatest extent that we could. The shadow's are dangerous, that much I know, but the fact of the matter is, there just seems to be a lot more that could actually be of use from the shadows. I'm probably going to figure out what it is eventually, but for the time being, I won't even think about messing with something like that. Maybe after I get enough Chakra to use a shadow clone? I could probably do that now, but I'm not going to risk it, and then there's the fact that what happens to the clone could also happen to me. Troublesome as it is, this is warrants looking into._

 **-To drift like a cloud-**

Letting out a sigh as the last word was wrote down onto the page, Shikamaru shut the small journal that she kept with her, and looked up towards her Sensei. She knew that he was standing there for a bit, his shadow covering her book and all of that, but she didn't want to comment on him. He was sending her a curious look, probably from the words that she used for her journal, something she wanted to make sure stayed that way because of the fact that it made sure that no one in this world could read her journal.

Asuma looked like he wanted to ask what was going on with that, but decided against it, as he said "Well, now that the warm ups are done, how about we get started with the rest of the training?"

Groaning loudly, and earning a laugh from the boys, Shikamaru slumped against the tree she was near once again. She knew that the training would get her stronger and all of that, but come on, this was ridiculous! Well at the very least, at least she knew that her mother wouldn't work her to the bone anymore when it came to training. She would get enough of that from Asuma.

* * *

 **So what did you guys think about this? To be honest between work, and a bunch of other things it took awhile for me to figure out where I wanted to go with this chapter, and eventually I just deicded that I was going to go a bit slow when it comes to making this a bit on the darker side, so any fights won't happen until next chapter or later. That said though, realize that everything I have said before is true, and that means that NO MORE ASKING FOR A PAIRING! Seriously all of you who have asked about it know who you are, and I'm not annoyed at you but it** _ **is**_ **annoying having to constantly talk about it when I already have an idea of what I'm going to do with it.**

 **With that off of my chest, I'm thinking writing another story as well, and that one is honestly going to be a RWBY one, and at the moment I'm not sure where I'm going to go with it, but yeah, if any of you want to talk about things with that let me know, but for now, I'm just going to let this drop and leave it at that. I hope to hear from you guys to let me know what you think and everything, but that'll be up to you guys. Any review though does help when it comes to motivation, so drop one here and there, and do the same for other stories, seriously you wouldn't believe how much Motivation one simple review gives.**


	6. Special 1

**I'm so sorry for not being able to update for so long but I had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get access to my google account once again and that was** _ **after**_ **I got a new computer after my last one fried on me, I know that this doesn't make up for it, but it's what I have to give for you, you know? I'll try and update once again soon as I can now that I can write again, but you're going to have to give me a bit of credit when it comes to things since I'm out of whack for writing.**

 **This chapter, as you can guess, is going to be a Christmas special, and this takes place a few weeks after the teams were made, and this is** _ **100%**_ **canon as far as this story is concerned. I was also trying my hand when it comes to a bit of fluff when it comes to Naruto and Shika, since that is going to be the pairing for this story even if it is going to be a slow** _ **slow**_ **burn as far as the relationship is concerned. Either way, I hope you all enjoy this!**

Shikamaru let out a deep, almost sensual, moan as she slipped deeper into the hot springs. After a long mission this, _this,_ was absolute bliss! The normally Lazy Kunoichi would complain a lot when it came to missions, but the fact was that she was completely serious with them when she needed to be, and because of that, she was all the more thankful that her dad had given her a year membership to the best hot spring in the village. Even if that stupid Perverted Toad sage was around, she knew that the rest of the Kunoichi in the place would especially since she was only a genin, and the rest of them were at the very least low Jounin in strength. Either way though, she just wanted to soak her aching limbs in the nice warm water at the moment.

"Hey! Is that you Shikamaru?! I hardly recognized you without the ponytail!" A voice, one that was absolutely annoying entered the girl's ears.

Opening her eyes with annoyance reflecting from them, Shikamaru wasn't surprised to see that Ino was walking into the hot springs, and right towards her. Just when she thought that she might have a peaceful rest for once!

Bleary eyed, and more than a little miffed, the black haired girl looked towards her friend with a scowl "What do you want ino? I've been trying to relax!"

"Oh come on, don't give me that! You're on a team with one of the people that you obviously wanted to be on a team with, so why aren't you happy?" The blonde haired girl asked, almost right away making it so that Shikamaru sent a weary look towards her.

Gossip and Yamanaka were practically synonyms for Konoha, and the black haired girl could see the look in the blonde's eyes. Giving a lazy yawn towards her in response, the only thing that the Nara said in response was "Troublesome." before she started to get out of the hot springs. And here she was thinking that she might be able to relax for once!

"Oh no, you're not getting away that easily." Before she so much as managed to even stand up, the blonde latched onto her arm forcing the Nara to sit right back down "No spill it!"

A few minutes later had a disgruntled Nara sitting next to an extremely happy Yamanaka. She knew that she should have just got out of there right away!

Having to make it so that Shikamaru spilled practically everything when it came to her teammates, she just knew that she was going to hear about this later. Even trying to make sure that the blonde didn't tell anyone else wouldn't work unless it came to a hefty bribe or blackmail, neither of which the young Nara had. Money wouldn't work either considering the fact that the Yamanaka were a fairly wealthy clan in Konoha considering all the clientele that their flower shop sold to. And there wasn't anything blackmail wise in her possession that would keep the Yamanaka from spreading her information.

At least the blonde couldn't get anything else out of her.

"Oh yeah! What are you going to give Naruto for Christmas?"

...Damn you Murphy's Law.

Sending an exhausted look towards the blonde Shikamaru shook her head "No Idea. The idiot would probably like it if I just gave him a gift card for Ichiraku's, but that doesn't really scream 'Christmas present!' now does it? We might not even get snow this year either you know."

"That's no excuse and you know it!" Came the immediate response, something that made the black haired girl sink even further into the hot spring.

Trying to ignore her for the moment, Shikamaru really didn't know what she could get for Naruto that he would actually use. A prank set probably wouldn't be able to be used anymore at this point, what with him being an official Ninja and everything, but that really didn't stop him from pranking people at times. Thinking over it though, would a trap kit be any better? Really she didn't know, and at times it was just frustrating to try and figure out what the blonde would or wouldn't like, since he would try and make it seem that he liked the thing that she got him even if he didn't.

Giving a groan of annoyance, the black haired girl stood up once again to get out of the bath, this time not being stopped by Ino, since it seemed that Shikamaru was deep in thought. Even then though, the blonde gave a soft smile towards the Nara considering that as far as she was concerned Shikamaru liked Naruto. Whether that was true or not remained to be seen, but she was rooting for the two no matter what, even if they didn't know it.

 **-[(Christmas~) Putting lights on the tree~]-**

As it turned out, Shikamaru had been racking her brain to figure out what she was going to do for the blonde idiot for almost a week, and before she knew it, it was christmas eve, and she was starting to panic. Her father had tried to give his help, her mother as well for that matter, but she had quickly declined it. She was of the mindset that if it wasn't a gift that she thought of herself then it wasn't worth it to give the blonde. Before she knew it, though, the date had sneaked up on her and it was time for the party that she had invited all of her friends to for Christmas, and she was still not sure if the blonde's present would be well taken or not.

She couldn't decide just what it was that she would give him so she ended up just getting something on impulse, and she really did hope that it was taken well. She saw herself as the blonde's best friend so if she didn't get him a gift that he actually liked, she would be disappointed in herself.

"If you keep that up you're going to wear a ditch into the rug." A voice spoke up catching her attention.

Looking over towards the voice, Shikamaru saw that her father was staring at her with an amused look on his face. Right away annoyance flooded her system at the sight due to the fact that he was so amused at her worry. The scowl on her face must have really shown how annoyed she was at the situation, that Shikaku let loose a chuckle.

Giving his daughter a smile in response to the scowl, the older Nara spoke "I don't think you really need to worry all things considered considering the fact that he'd probably like anything that you got him you know."

"That doesn't mean that he actually likes what I got him." Shikamaru spoke up, her voice showing just how annoyed she was at the moment "I mean, I know a lot of his likes and stuff like it, but that doesn't make him any easier to get a gift for."

A sigh escaped the elder Nara, as he stood up, and walked over towards his daughter, stopping her in her tracks with both his hands on her shoulders "Listen Shika, do you know what the biggest problem with being a Nara is?" Seeing her confusion, and the shake of her head, he continued "It's our intellect. Don't get me wrong it's a wonderful thing in a fight, but every day life? We constantly overthink things. That's why I have your mother to help me get a simpler view on life. She's smart, but she see's things in a more normal way then the rest of us Nara."

That made a lot more sense then Shikamaru would normally give the situation, but whether she liked it or not, it helped. She was getting so worried over whether or not Naruto would actually like what she got him, that she didn't just think about _how_ he would take it. She couldn't actually remember the last time that she had actually invited Naruto to a Christmas party in the first place, and to her shame, she hadn't actually. That meant that this would be the first Christmas that Naruto would actually be spending with her family, and it was only after they had graduated.

Shaking herself out of her train of thought, the younger Nara gave her father a grateful look, giving him a quick hug, something she didn't normally do, before she rushed out of the house. She saw the surprise on her father's face out of the corner of her eye, but she ignored it when she saw it quickly change into a soft hearted joy that she didn't see too often anymore. Even then though, she rushed right out of the house, intent on getting a refund of what she did get already, and go with what she had in mind the first time around.

 **{Have yourself a merry little christmas~}**

Shikaku wasn't sure what it was that his daughter had gotten her blonde friend, but to be honest, didn't care. He could see the joy that was on Shikamaru's face at the idea of her friend getting what she got jim. The fact that this was the first Christmas that they were celebrating together, of course, made things a little more tense than they normally would. Shikaku knew that the younger Nara would have invited the blonde before, but again it all came down to having someone pull on the reigns that was the Nara's intellect. There was that, and the fact that Naruto made sure not to mention it whenever he came over in the day's after that.

Now though, he could see just how happy the group was. Added to the normal though, were the Jounin that were their teachers. Asuma, Kurenai and Kakashi, though the last one still hadn't arrived. Of the kids from them though, only Sasuke didn't show up to the party, though whether that was because of Shikamaru not inviting him or not, Shikaku wasn't exactly sure. Even then though, a smile made it's way onto his face unbidden, as he looked towards the kids.

Shikaku's attention shifted once again as Asuma walked over towards him, a cigarette in his mouth, but the end of it not yet lit. Turning his dark eyes back towards the kids, the Jounin commander spoke "How are things Asuma."

"I can't complain with my team." The Sarutobi spoke with an even tone, though there was a hint of a smile in his tone "I was actually surprised by how much your daughter's actually working. I kind of expected her to be like when you were a genin from what I've heard."

"I assure I wasn't nearly as bad as what any of the stories suggest." Shikaku said in response, a smirk on his face even as he continued to look towards the kids, who just watching as Naruto and Kiba got into another fight "Still, I'm happy to know that Shikamaru is taking her Kunoichi career seriously."

Pulling out his lighter, Asuma hummed in agreement "I guess we'll see if it's just her faking it or not eventually. I mean, certain motivations can only take someone so far."

He knew it as well as the Jounin that told him, but that didn't make it any less harsh when it came to teaching it to a Genin. Thankfully there wasn't a way going on at the moment, but that still didn't mean you didn't need to be careful. Quickly getting out of that type of thought pattern, Shikaku focused on the fact that the christmas party was still going. No need to think about gloomy topics while you were supposed to be having fun.

Out of the corner of Shikaku's eyes, he noticed a certain someone giving him a look, which caused him to chuckle a bit "Well, it was nice talking to you Asuma, but this is a party. I believe someone asked me to dance with them."

The younger Jounin gave a cheeky smirk towards the Nara clan head before he headed off, and then turned his attention towards a certain red eyed jounin sensei. But really, with people that cared for you, and vice versa, it was hard not to be happy.

 **{Have yourself, a merry little christmas~}**

Shikamaru was honestly happy with how things had turned out. After getting a few presents, which mainly consisted of either cooking items of various types, or board games, it was time for the others to open their presents in turn, and she was nervous. Of course the nervousness was mainly due to what she had ended up getting for Naruto, and she was honestly not sure how well he would take it as well. Of course if anyone else noticed they didn't say anything, but the cheeky look that Hinata had was answer enough. Everyone knew that she was nervous, and they all knew why as well

As it turned out though, she needn't have bothered with being so worried in the first place. The gift that she had ended up getting the blonde, which was a starter trap kit, and a 5000 Ryo gift card to Ichiraku was something that blonde was really happy with. After she explained that she should be able to build traps as easily as pranks, the blondes confused look shifted into a full blown grin. Of course if that wasn't bad enough when it came to her embarrassment of the situation, she was picked up. Yup, the blonde was so happy that he ended up picking her up into a hug, something that sent her face ablaze.

"Get off me you troublesome blonde!" Was what she had said at the time despite her embarrassment, but those words did little to dissuade his joy.

After giving the stink eye to a couple of her fellow Genin (I.E: Ino, Chouji, Kiba and Hinata), she decided to try and get everyone out of the house, and into the yard so that they could see the fireworks that were going to go off eventually. Before Naruto could get out of the house though, Shikamaru quickly grabbed him by the shoulder, getting a confused "Shika?"

"Shh.. I know a better place that we can watch from." The Nara Heiress spoke, a lazy smile on her face as she started to halfheartedly pull the blonde in a different direction.

The blonde seemed to just go along with it as it were if the fact that he followed along was anything to go by. Walking through the house, and making sure not to disturb the adults, who were drinking quite a bit now that she saw, they exited out a side door of the house. Looking around once again to make sure that they were alone, Shika turned towards her friend, before giving a smirk and jumping onto the roof of the house.

"Shika?!" The blonde half yelled with confusion.

Rolling her eyes at Naruto, Shikamaru leaned over the edge to get a good look at him "Are you coming or what?"

Not wanting to be left behind, the blonde did just that as he jumped onto the roof as well, before following along where Naruto was going. If she was honest, she didn't know why she brought the blonde up here, but it _was_ her spot pretty much. This was the spot that she always went to when she needed to think, or to just cry without anyone knowing. Shika was certain that her dad knew she went up here, but as far as he was concerned so long as she didn't hurt herself, it didn't matter. But at the same time, her mom _didn't_ know she went up here so it often led to her trying to explain, without explaining, where she went.

Needless to say it tended to be blown out of proportion at times.

Sliding down to lay on the roof, the slanted roof making it so they were facing the village, Shikamaru let out a yawn as she got comfortable. Naruto, after a few seconds, did the same thing, prompting her to speak "Hey, can you not tell anyone about this place? This is my spot for when I need some time to myself, so keep it to yourself as well."

"You actually trust me with knowing you come up here?" The blonde asked in response, the disbelief evident in his tone.

Sending a frown towards him, Shika quickly said "Well, yeah. Your kind of my best friend, more than Choji even for that matter. Why wouldn't I tell you about this place?"

The two went into a comfortable silence once again, the fact that Shika would trust him enough for this leaving a warm feeling in the blonde's chest. A smile ended up crawling onto his face at that same time, before the fireworks started to go off in the distance. Both of the pre-teens sat up as best they could at the sound, looks of wonder appearing on their expressions, even if Shika's was a little less obvious.

A smile made it's way onto the Nara's as she thought over all of the memories that she had with the blonde that was sitting next to her. Unbeknownst to her, or the blonde for that matter, their hands slowly started to creepy closer, until eventually they touched, causing the two to look at each other in surprise. They stayed like that for an awkward moment, before a soft smile made its way onto Shika's face, while a grin made it's way onto Naruto's. Raising her hand, she took the blonde's hand into her own, a tight grip on the hand showing that she was going to let go of it.

It might be crazy, the type of things that they were going to end up getting into in the future, but that didn't matter to either of them. They had gotten through everything so far, they could do it again no matter what else was sent their way.

 **Merry christmas everyone!**


End file.
